Development and Validation of the Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports

Abstract

The Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports (MCSYS) provides an age-appropriate measure of coach-initiated motivational climates in youth sports. Items have a readability level of grade 4.0 or below. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that both child and adolescent athletes (ages 9–14) discriminate between mastery- and ego-involving coaching behaviors. The MCSYS demonstrated acceptable reliability and strong factorial validity. Construct validity research yielded predicted relations within a nomological net that included athletes’ achievement goal orientations, competitive trait anxiety, sport enjoyment and coach evaluations, intrinsic motivation, and self-esteem. In both white middle-class and low income minority samples, the mastery and ego subscales also proved sensitive to a coach intervention designed to promote the establishment of a mastery climate and a reduction of ego climate behaviors. We discuss use of the scale to, measure motivational climate at individual and team levels and the desirability of multi-level statistical analyses of climate data.

Sean P. Cumming is now at the School for Health, University of Bath, Bath, England.

This research was partially supported by Grant 2297 from the William T. Grant Foundation. We express our appreciation to the following for their assistance in data collection: Erica Coppel, Polo DeCano, Kira Elste, Christopher Harris, Leslie Lombardo, Kim Matz, Cheree Monroe-Wilson, Olivia Morrow, Tori Nutsch, Dana Ryan, Jason Victor, and Nathalie Walker. We also thank Joan Duda and Glyn Roberts for their kindness in sharing materials.

Notes

∗ p < .01

∗∗ p < .001.