The patterns of task values, success expectations, and task-avoidance among student-athletes across three years of upper secondary sport school

The study investigated the longitudinal patterns of school and sports motivations (task values, success expectations, and task avoidant behavior) among adolescent Finnish student-athletes (n = 493; 49 % females; 15–16 years old) across three years of upper secondary sports school. It also examined the association between school-related and sports-related motivational patterns. Participants completed questionnaires four times, starting at the beginning of upper secondary school and concluding at the end of it. Using repeated measures latent profile analysis (RMLPA), five distinct motivational profiles with slight increases or decreases across time in certain aspects of motivation depending on profile were identified for both school and sports. Students were typically more motivated regarding sports than school. Regardless of their school-related motivation, students displayed high levels of motivation in sports. Those with a particular motivational profile for sports tended to have a similar kind of profile for school.

Educational relevance and implications statement

By longitudinally exploring task values and achievement-related behaviors and beliefs, the study sheds light on the mutual relations of these motivational constructs over three years of upper secondary sports school. The findings suggest that task values and achievement-related behaviors and beliefs do not always go hand in hand, but that there is a lot of individual variation in motivational patterns and, moreover, that this variation is evident in both the school and sport domains. This finding emphasizes that interventions aimed at supporting student-athletes' motivation should consider individual differences in motivational patterns: Depending on motivational patterns, different students may benefit from different types of interventions. The findings highlight further that among student-athletes the profiles characterized by maladaptive motivational pattern are more typical in the domain of school than in sports. Therefore, coaches and sport leaders should emphasize not only athletic commitment but also the importance of academic engagement, as effective interventions can modify students' motivational beliefs. Delivering these interventions early is crucial, given that motivation seems to be formed before upper secondary school.