Reflections of four student-athletes on their goal orientation during high schoo

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the goal orientation of four student-athletes during high school. The research questions focussed on examining the dimensions of goal orientation within and across school and sport.;Four successful male student-athletes at Queen's University participated in the current study. The participants were all pursuing post-graduate degrees and had all played on a varsity sport during the 2000--2001 school year. They were asked to reflect on their high school experiences in school and sport. Data collection began in November, 2000 and was conducted over a four-month period. Retrospective data were collected across two individual interviews per participant and were analyzed using a theoretical framework based on goal orientation.;The four participants had different goal orientations. Pat held a strong task orientation in both sport and school, whereas Mark and Adrian adopted high levels of both task- and ego-oriented goals in each domain, depending on the motivational climate of the activity. Jim was highly ego-oriented in both domains, but adopted performance-approach goals in sport and performance-avoid goals in school.;The study has both practical and theoretical implications. It suggests that the adoption of a task orientation, whether accompanied by a performance-approach orientation or not, is beneficial. In addition, it indicates the connections between a person's goal orientation across domains.