Sources of Enjoyment and Goal Orientation among Youth Swimmers

The first objective of this study was to examine whether there are achievement goal orientation profile differences regarding enjoyment of swimming. The second objective was to assess which sources of enjoyment differentiate swimmers of different achievement goal orientation profiles. Female (N=128) and male (N=174) swimmers aged 10 to 18 years completed questionnaires of swimming enjoyment, sources of enjoyment in sport (SEYSQ), and achievement goal orientation (TEOSQ). ANOVA revealed that those with high task/high ego, high task/moderate ego and moderate task/low ego profiles have significantly higher levels of enjoyment of swimming as compared to those with low task/moderate ego profiles. Discriminant analysis showed that four groups of swimmers could be described by two discriminant functions. High task/high ego group is placed on the positive side of the function “achievement with intrinsic motivation”. This group showed greatest enjoyment of swimming in other-referenced competency and recognition, effort expenditure, self-referenced competency, positive parental involvement and competitive excitement. Low task/moderate ego group significantly stands out on the positive side of the “achievement without effort” function and showed greatest enjoyment only in other-referenced competency and recognition. This research serves as a step towards a better understanding of a conceptual link between goal orientation and sources of enjoyment in young swimmers.