Browsing by Subject "urheilulukiot"

The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships between achievement goal orientations and perfectionism, and the possible differences between general and sports program students in upper secondary school with respect to these phenomena. Achievement goal orientations refer to individual's generalized tendencies to favor certain type of goals and outcomes in an achievement context. Perfectionism is a personality characteristic, which as a multidimensional construct consists of both positive (high standards) and negative (dissatisfaction with the attainment of the goal) dimensions. Both achievement goal orientations and perfectionism have been linked to individual's well-being, interpretation of the environment, and achievement. There is only a few previous research that have studied the relationship between achievement goal orientations and perfectionism. The assumption in the present study is that students' achievement goal orientations have an effect on what kind of perfectionistic tendencies they display. Examining differences between athletes and non-athletes with respect to achievement motivation and perfectionism is a relative new study subject. By examining these differences, we might get important information whether young athletes have managed to combine the demands of their sports and upper secondary school studies. Finding the balance between these demands is one notable challenge student-athletes confront. The participants in the present study were 424 general upper secondary school students from different parts of Finland. General program was followed by 211 of students, and 213 of students followed sports program. A person-centred approach was applied to the data-analysis. Five distinct achievement goal orientation profiles were extracted by utilizing the TwoStep Cluster analysis. The profiles were named following the previous research, and according to their most dominant orientations (i.e., mastery-, success-, performance-avoidance- and avoidance-oriented, and indifferent). Differences between the profiles with respect to perfectionism were examined through a series of analyses of variance. Differences between general- and sports program students were examined through a series of analyses of variance, and through Cross Tabulation. As expected, students with different orientations towards studying differed from each other according to perfectionism. The mastery-, success- and performance-avoidance oriented students emphasized adaptive perfectionism. However, the success- and performance-avoidance-oriented students emphasized also maladaptive perfectionism. The indifferent students slightly highlighted maladaptive perfectionism. The avoidance-oriented students did highlight neither of the perfectionism dimensions. The findings suggest that students' motivational patterns have an influence on their perfectionistic tendencies. Maladaptive motivational patterns, as well as, maladaptive perfectionistic tendencies seem to accumulate to same students. It would be important to take these results into consideration at teaching and its design, so that students who need support and counseling would receive them. There were not significant differences between general and sports program students according to achievement motivation and perfectionism. The findings indicate that sport-oriented schools have managed to support young athletes to combine their intensive sports training and upper secondary school studies.