To improve or to compete Implicit theories of ability and parental behavior as determinants of achievement goals in sport

The central question of this dissertation is why some athletes are motivated by the desire to develop and improve their abilities (mastery goals), while other athletes are motivated by the desire to outperform others (performance goals). I investigated whether these goals originate in athletes’ beliefs about sport abilities and/or in the behaviors of their parents.
I found that some athletes believe that sport ability can be developed through practice (incremental beliefs), while others believe that sport ability is innate (entity beliefs). Furthermore, the correlational studies in this dissertation showed weak to moderate relations between incremental beliefs and mastery goals, and between entity beliefs and performance goals. However, my experimental studies could hardly confirm these relations. Because implicit theories are difficult to manipulate credibly in a sport context, I propose a number of recommendations for the improvement of experimental designs in this context.
I also studied how achievement goals in adolescent athletes are related to their parents’ behavior, and the extent to which their parents encourage improvement or competition (the parent-initiated motivational climate). Parental autonomy support, responsiveness, and behavioral control were positively related to mastery goals, as mediated by the parent-initiated mastery climate. Parental psychological control was positively related to performance goals, as mediated by the parent-initiated performance climate. I conclude that future studies on children and adolescents in sport should include parental behavior.