Competitive Swimmers' Perception of Motivational Climate and Their Personal Achievement Goals

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of perceived motivational climate with personal achievement goals in competitive youth swimmers. A total of 119 competitive swimmers (mean age = 14.76) participated in this study. Participants completed the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 and the Achievement Goal Questionnaire-S. Overall, swimmers perceived the motivational climate on their team to be more mastery-oriented than performance-oriented. Regression analyses indicated that a mastery-oriented motivational climate was a positive predictor of mastery-approach goals and a negative predictor of mastery-avoidance goals. Perception of a performance-oriented motivational climate was a positive predictor of performance-approach goals. In addition, mastery-approach goals were positively related to satisfaction and persistence and negatively related to practice avoidance while mastery avoidance goals were negatively related to satisfaction.