The development of school and sports task values among adolescent athletes: The role of gender

Successfully integrating elite sports with education requires motivation to commit oneself to both domains. This study examines the development of and gender differences in adolescent athletes' task values for school and sports across the upper secondary school years. A total of 391 adolescents (aged 15-16 at the beginning of the study) were followed four times during sports upper secondary school. The participating student athletes were recruited from six sports upper secondary schools in Finland, which offer equal competitive sport opportunities for both genders. The results showed that school- and sports- task values are strongly related to each other. Males valued school less than females at the beginning of upper secondary school, and this gender difference remained, and also strengthened across years. No gender differences in sports-related task values were found. The findings indicate that females may be more committed to integrating elite sports and education than males due to their higher valuing of school.