Motivational profiles and achievement goal dominance in physical education

The main goal was to compare idiographic profiles of achievement goal dominance (AGD) and motivational profiles based on 2x2 achievement goals to improve our understanding of how the four achievement goals work in conjunction with one another, and to discern which profiles are most adaptive in the Physical Education context. A total of 351 students (203 males; 148 females) (M = 14.26 ± 1.37 years) from 3 different secondary schools agreed to participate. 86.6% (N = 303) showed AGD, mostly mastery-approach dominance (62.9%).We examined the four AGD groups' idiographic profiles and how they relate to certain positive (autonomous motivation and positive affect) and negative variables (controlled motivation and amotivation). The results supported the hypotheses of AGD theory (MANOVA one-way, Wilks' lambda = .609, F(24, 298) = 7.96, p < .001, η2 = .15). Subsequently, k-means cluster analysis was performed, yielding 4 distinct achievement goal profiles. The most adaptive was named "mastery goals", while "high achievement goals" were the second most adaptive. AGD participants'distribution across the different motivational clusters was also ascertained (MANOVA one-way, Wilks' lambda = .678, F(12, 910) = 12.01, p < .001, η2 = .12).