Orientation and motivational climate in elite handball players: Multivariate modeling of performance

Abstract This study's objectives were to analyse goal orientation and motivational climate in elite handball players as functions of age and gender; and construct a multivariate model explaining handball performance from a motivational perspective (orientation and climate). The participants were 174 national team handball players. They were categorized in accordance with the official age groups. Two questionnaires were used: Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire and the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2. A one-way ANOVA (Bonferroni post-hoc correction) was used to examine differences between teams for each gender. Discriminant analyses were performed to classify the participants of each team into two groups according to their performance level (starters and non-starters). There were no age or gender differences found in goal orientation, and very few differences in motivational climate. Except for the women's U19, U17, and U15 teams, it was possible to predict the performance level (starters and non-starters) in the different age and gender groups, achieving correct classification (55% to 93%). The two variables that were repeated most often (thrice) in the models were ego orientation and task cooperative learning. Coaches might focus on looking for handball players with ego orientation, while a climate of task-oriented motivation should predominate in training sessions.