Achievement goal theory (AGT; Nicholls, 1989) is commonly used to explain motivational aspects of physical activity and sport (Duda, 1993). However, AGT has been infrequently used to examine team sport participation by adults. To better understand adult team sport participation from an AGT perspective, the purpose of this study was to identify differences in goal orientations as a function of gender and level of competition and to examine differences between goal profile groups on perceived competence and motivation. Results revealed no significant differences in orientation as a function of gender, level of competition, or their interaction. Results further indicated that the Low Task Mod Ego and the High Task High Ego groups were the least self-determined. It was concluded that men and women competing in adult soccer leagues are similar in goal orientations and that the availability of competitive team sport may be important for physical activity involvement by adult women.

This study investigated gender stereotypes in sport among Italian university students. In particular, it examined respondents’ views of a large number of sports as either feminine or masculine endeavors and whether these views varied across respondents’ gender and their self-beliefs concerning gender-role personality descriptions. Five hundred fifty-nine university undergraduate students (M=256; F=303) were asked to rate the gender connotation of 72 different sport disciplines. They were also presented with an already-validated (Bem, 1974) questionnaire presenting a list of masculine/feminine personality characteristics and asked to indicate the extent to which each characteristic was self-descriptive. Finally, respondents’ past exposure to sport was assessed. Each sport discipline was coded as masculine, feminine, or neutral (i.e., no gender connotation) on the basis of respondents’ sport rating scores. As a whole, most sports were viewed as either masculine or neutral endeavors, and there was varying homogeneity in respondents’ normative views across types of sports. Female students and students who assigned masculine characteristics to themselves rated sports as more feminine than did their counterparts. Respondents’ prior exposure to sport was not correlated with their sport ratings. Findings were discussed for their implications to the assessment of gender stereotyping in sport.

This study examined the perceived sources of competitive stress experienced by Korean national athletes. One hundred-eighty Korean athletes from 41 different sports were interviewed about the perceived sources of competitive stress they experienced as national athletes, both presently and in the past. Qualitative methodology was utilized in this investigation and the interview transcripts were analyzed inductively. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. Themes were identified from the analysis of the interview data. Combining these themes, seven general dimensions of stress sources were identified: psychological demands, environmental demands, physical demands, perceived expectations of others, human relationship issues, life direction concerns, and uncategorizable sources. Overall, general sources of stress identified in Korean national athletes in this study parallel the same seven stress dimensions identified by Gould, Jackson, and Finch (1993), although there were several points of divergence relative to the stress experienced by Korean national athletes.

A modified version of Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Romer’s (1993) semi-structured interview schedule was employed to examine the relationship between gender, level of professional standing and facets of practice amongst men and women professional and amateur dart players. Players accumulated number of practice hours were classified at four periods during their sporting history, namely; at years 3, 5, 10 and 15 in relation to engaging in playing league darts, playing for fun, playing in competitions, engaging in solitary deliberate practice and deliberate practice with a partner.

Qualitative and quantitative capabilities of young individuals to reproduce rhythmic patterns were submitted for analysis. Internal consistency and stability of a computerized test were assessed comparing performances of 65 musically untrained participants (age range: 6-17 yr.) on multiple trials performed within a single day and trials performed two weeks apart, respectively. In addition, 46 musically trained individuals were tested. No inter-trial learning effect was shown within a single-day experimental session. Percentage of success in rhythmic reproduction showed differences depending on the time hierarchies of the proposed patterns. Data showed a high degree of consistency between sessions. The test seems to be sensitive to improvement in the rhythmic reproduction ability of young children (6-10 years) and represents a useful laboratory and field tool to evaluate rhythmic performances.