The competitive motivation of youth federated squash players: an exploratory and comparative study

Abstract

The Competitive Motivation (MC) is a fundamental personality trait in the context of sports. Recently, a new model for assessing the MC called Three-dimensional Model of Competitive Motivation Assessment (TMCMA) was proposed. This model assumes that the MC has three distinct competitive orientations: to win (OV), to perform (OP), and to obtain status (OS). The purpose of this research is to explore and compare the competitive motivational profile of 35 youth federated squash players, of both genders, and aged between 13 to 18 years old. Therefore, this sample answered to the Balbinotti's Scale of Competitive Motivation in Sport (BSCMS-18). The two main results were: 1) the orientations emerged as OP, OV, and OS, in this order, being OP and OV the only one of three analyzed pairs that is statistically non-significant; 2) the gender variable does not significantly influence the intensity of the answers in any of the three orientations tested. Further studies should explore whether the statistically non-significant mean difference found between OP and OV was influenced by the sample size.