Abstract
The use of nutritional supplements has become an increasingly common practice, especially among university-age athletes (Froiland, Koszewaki, Hingst, & Kopecky, 2004). Categories of nutritional supplements include energy, protein, vitamin, herbal, and mineral supplements, which are most commonly taken with the purpose of increasing overall health or maximizing athletic performance (Froiland et al., 2004). Motivation for performing certain behaviours, including nutritional supplement use, in an athletic and active context may be explained by achievement goal orientations. Five dimensions of achievement goal orientations have been identified as self-enhancing ego-orientation, self-defeating ego-orientation, task-orientation, work avoidant-orientation, and social approval-orientation (Gilson, Chow, & Ewing, 2008). The purpose of this study was to assess relationships between nutritional supplement use in university-age physically active individuals and their achievement goal orientations. Ninety-three participants completed a basic and sport- and physical activity-specific demographic questions, the Multiple Goal Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (MGOSQ; Gilson et al., 2008), and a nutritional supplement inventory. A significant logistic regression, ChiSq (5) = 13.9, p = .016, found individuals high on self-enhancing ego orientation to be 2.01 times more likely to use supplements than those low on self-enhancing ego orientation. Individuals low on social-approval orientation were 7.39 times less likely to take nutritional supplements than those high on social-approval orientation. Findings may have implications for control of supplement use for both teams and individuals in athletic settings to implement a task-oriented environment that encourages self-referenced success and progression of skills.
