Exploring the relationship between goal orientation and perceived performance emphasizing the mediating effect of training flow and moderating effect of coaches’ social support among elite taekwondo student-athletes
Download this article Jyunduk Jeong
College of General Education, Kookmin University, Republic of Korea
Citation
Jeong, J. (2023). Exploring the relationship between goal orientation and perceived performance emphasizing the mediating effect of training flow and moderating effect of coaches’ social support among elite taekwondo student-athletes. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 54(3), 227-247. doi:10.7352/IJSP.2023.54.227
Abstract
One of the major challenges for youth sports coaches is improving athletes’ perceived performance. Goal orientation and training flow were key factors influencing perceived performance. The objective of this study was to investigate the structural relationship between task orientation, ego orientation, training flow, and perceived performance emphasizing the mediating effect of training flow and moderating effect of coaches’ social support. The present study analyzed data from 303 elite Taekwondo student-athletes attending one of 16 high schools in South Korea. SPSS 24.0 was used to conduct the frequency, correlation, and reliability analyses; AMOS 24.0 was used to perform confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling; Jamovi was used to conduct a simple slope analysis for moderators. There was a positive impact of (a) task (0.530, p<0,001) and (b) ego orientation (0.274, p<0.001) on training flow as well as of (c) task orientation (0.231, p<0.01), (d) ego orientation (0.404, p<0.001), and (e) training flow (0.163, p<0.05) on perceived performance. Moreover, training flow was found to partially mediate the relationship between ego orientation and perceived performance, and coaches’ social support moderated the relationship between task orientation and perceived performance. The current study (1) provided support for the positive link between goal orientation and flow (2) identified a positive relationship between goal orientation and perceived performance in youth sports, (3) recognized a positive relationship between training flow and perceived performance, which heeds the argument of previous studies, (4) emphasized the importance of training flow in meditating the relationship between ego orientation and perceived performance, and (5) showed that coaches’ social support moderates the relationship between task orientation and perceived performance
Keywords: Goal orientation, Training flow, Perceived performance, Social sup- port, Taekwondo, Youth sport