Situational and dispositional goals as predictors of perceptions of individual and team improvement, satisfaction and coach ratings among elite female handball teams

Objectives. To examine the relationship of the perceived motivational climate created by the coach and dispositional goal orientations of elite female handball players' (a) perceived individual and team improvement in different facets of the game; (b) satisfaction with their own and the team's game; and (c) ratings of the coach. A second aim was to study whether the dependent variables were best predicted by the perceived motivational climate created by the coach and/or the players' dispositional goal orientations. Design. Cross-sectional. Methods: Elite female handball players (n=181) from 14 teams participating in a national handball competition in Spain completed the Spanish measures of goal orientations and climate and items assessing the dependent variables of interest. Results: When a stronger task-involving climate was perceived, players reported greater performance improvement and satisfaction with performance and held more positive views regarding the coach. Task orientation added a significant proportion of the variance for perceptions of one's own performance improvement. Perceptions of an ego-involving climate were negatively related to overall coach ratings but were positively related to satisfaction with the team's competitive results. Conclusions: The findings are consistent with the tenets of achievement goal theory and provide evidence for the adaptive implications of a task-involving climate in high-level sport. The superior predictive ability of climate over individual goals suggests that interventions targeted at the coach should have an important impact on individual and team motivation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.