Research on the Relationship Between Ski and Snowboard Athletes’ Fear of Failure and Their Sport Enjoyment and Goal Orientation

Abstract

Enjoying sport is a critical factor in understanding the sources of athletes’ enthusiasm for sport, creating enjoyable sport experiences for young athletes, maintaining their participation in sport, and setting specific goals. It is well known that fear of failure is amongst the main motivational problems on the path to achieving set goals. The inability to eliminate the fear of failure can lead to a decline in the level of fulfilment, satisfaction, and pleasure, interfering with the achievement of goals set by the athlete for a specific purpose. From this point of view, the aim of our study is to examine the effects of ski and snowboard athletes’ enjoyment of sport and goal orientation on their fear of failure in terms of various variables.  This study is quantitative research in which the correlational survey model was applied. The Sources of Sports Enjoyment Scale (SSEE) adapted to Turkish by Çimen and Gürbüz (2008), the Task and Ego Orientation Scale (TEOS) adapted to Turkish by Toros (2004), and The Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory translated into Turkish by Kahraman and Sungur (2016) were used. The population of the study consists of ski and snowboard athletes in Turkey, while the sample group consists of a total of 124 ski and snowboard athletes 72 of whom are male and 25 of whom are female randomly selected from various ski clubs.  Significant differences were found in all sub-scales of the participants’ gender variable and sports failure scale, and in both sub-scales of participation level variable and goal orientation. Positive moderate linear relationships were observed between sources of goal orientation, ego orientation and enjoyment of sport, and between ego orientation and goal orientation. Regarding the Failure in Sports scale, the female participants who regularly attended the trainings had, on average, higher scores on the "Participation Level" variable and the "Goal Orientation" scale. As the sources of sports enjoyment increase, goal orientation and ego orientation also increase. As ego orientation increases, goal orientation also increases.Keywords: Fear of Failure, Goal Orientation, Sports, Enjoyment