Aggression and goal orientations in handball: influence of institutional sport context

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of goal orientations with aggression in male adolescent handball across three institutional sport context, Physical Education, Interscholastic, and League (clubs). 30 handball games were videotaped (10 per context) and observed on monitor by means of a grid allowing the distinction between Instrumental (nonemotional and task-oriented) and Hostile (an emotional response which is an end in itself (aggression. 240 players also completed the "Questionnaire de Perception du Succès en Sport." A main effect of context emerged from 2 separate one-way multivariate analyses of variance for goal orientations and aggression. Univariate F tests and Newman-Keuls post hoc analyses indicated that Ego-goal orientation and Instrumental aggression were significantly higher in the League context than in the other two. Statistically significant positive correlations. between measures of Ego-goal orientation and aggression were observed. Discriminant function analysis indicated that strongly Ego-goal classified players displayed more Instrumental aggression than lower Ego-goal classified players.