Abstract
This study assessed the extent to which levels of task value in sport, perceived competence in sport, and athletic identity during early adolescence were associated with current levels of perfectionism in sport among a sample of 377 undergraduate students (M age = 20.89 years). The study also assessed the degree to which the level of competitive sport in which students participated was associated with current levels of perfectionism in sport. Participants completed a self-report instrument that asked them to think back to when they were in junior high and to indicate the extent to which they valued sport, were competent in sport, and identified with ‘being an athlete’ during this period of early adolescence. Participants also completed a measure of sport perfectionism that contained subscales from the Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Sport-MPS: Dunn, Causgrove Dunn, & Syrotuik, 2002) and the Multidimensional Inventory of Perfectionism in Sport (MIPS: Stoeber, Otto, & Stoll, 2004). Correlation and regression analyses results revealed that retrospective levels of task value, perceived competence, and athletic identity during early adolescence were positively associated with sport-perfectionism levels later in life (ps < .05). MANOVA results indicated that sport-perfectionism levels were generally higher among students who participated in higher (e.g., intercollegiate) as opposed to lower (e.g., recreational) levels of competitive sport (ps < .001). Collectively, the results indicate that person factors (i.e., task value, perceived competence, and athletic identity) and environmental factors (i.e., competitive sport level) may play a role in the development of perfectionism in sport.Acknowledgments: Research supported by a grant from the Sport Science Association of Alberta