Age and Gender Differences in Achievement Goal Orientations in Relation to Physical Activity

Our aim in the study was to examine age and gender differences in achievement goal orientations and their impact on self-reported persistence toward physical activities of middle school, high school, and college students. A total of 1254 students from four middle schools, two high schools, and one university participated in this study. Multiple regression analyses revealed that age, as a continuous variable, had a significant and positive effect on students' mastery-approach goals, performance-approach goals, mastery-avoidance goals, and their persistence toward physical activities. In contrast, the endorsement of performance-avoidance goals was negatively related to students' age. However, no significant gender differences or age-by-gender interactions were found for the four achievement goals. These findings suggest that future investigators should consider age (vs. grade) when examining maturational differences in young people's achievement goal orientation in physical activity settings.