H567/03 Section B Option 4 - Munroe-Chandler et al. (2008) and motivation

Background, aim and hypotheses

The prescribed research is Playing with confidence: the relationship between imagery use and self-confidence and self-efficacy in youth soccer players, published in 2008. Earlier work largely involved relatively elite adolescents or adults. The researchers asked whether imagery–confidence relations also applied to younger and recreational athletes. Primary article record and abstract, OCR Sport guide, pp20–25.

The aim was to examine relations between imagery use, general self-confidence and soccer self-efficacy in 11–14-year-olds at recreational and competitive levels. They expected motivational general-mastery (MG-M) imagery to predict both confidence measures, and expected its relation with confidence to be stronger among competitive players. MG-M concerns coping, confidence and mental strength, rather than only picturing victory.

This connects the cognitive area, through mental rehearsal and perceived capability, with learning and social influences on youth sport. The topic is motivation because confidence can inform willingness to attempt challenges and persist, but those motivational behaviours were not directly measured in this questionnaire study.

Method and sample

The study used self-report questionnaires and correlational analysis, with regression to examine statistical prediction. Imagery was not experimentally manipulated and there was no imagery-training versus control allocation. Recreational and competitive levels were existing groups. A statistical predictor describes a pattern in scores; it does not establish a causal influence.

The recruited sample contained 125 soccer players, 56 boys and 69 girls, aged 11–14, from house and travel leagues in south-western Ontario, Canada. Mean soccer experience was 6.11 years. House/recreational soccer emphasised skill development and local games; travel/competitive soccer also involved wider league and tournament competition.

There were 72 recreational and 50 competitive players reporting their level. Three did not report it and were removed from further analysis, leaving 122. The 56/69 gender counts describe the recruited 125; they should not be presented as verified gender counts for the analysed 122.

Teams were approached through emails and letters to coaches after University of Windsor ethics-board approval. Parental consent and player assent were obtained. Participation through selected local leagues was not a random sample of all children, sports or cultures.

Measures and procedure

CS concerned skills, CG plans or routines, MS goals, MG-A activation/emotions, and MG-M mastery or mental strength. SEQ-S assessed beliefs such as staying focused, in control and mentally tough. It did not count successful passes or goals. The CTAI-2C's confidence subscale was used with trait instructions; the full child inventory included anxiety dimensions, but those were not the target here.

Players first gave demographics, then completed SIQ-C, CTAI-2C and SEQ-S in that order. Completion took approximately 15 minutes before practice at their usual practice fields. Collection occurred mid-season across two weeks. This was a two-week data-collection window, not a two-week imagery intervention or repeated two-week confidence assessment.

Standard order, location relative to practice and child-appropriate measures support consistency and comprehensibility. The fixed order could also influence later responses, and all variables came from the same respondent at one collection point. Researchers need to consider shared response tendencies as well as real relations between constructs.

Findings and conclusions

All five imagery functions correlated positively and significantly with both confidence measures. MG-M had the strongest relationship. The confidence measures also correlated significantly with each other. There were no significant gender or playing-level differences on the imagery functions, confidence measures or playing experience.

Separate regressions examined the two playing levels. For general self-confidence, MG-M accounted for 50.6% of variance in recreational players; MG-A and MS added 12.7%. MG-M was the only significant predictor in competitive players, accounting for 39.6%. For soccer self-efficacy, MG-M was the only significant predictor, accounting for 51.6% in recreational and 57% in competitive players.

These are percentages of statistical variance accounted for, not percentages of children made confident or percentage improvements caused by imagery. For example, 50.6% describes how much variation in confidence scores the fitted predictor accounts for in that group. It cannot mean imagery increased every child's confidence by 50.6%.

The expected stronger MG-M relation among competitive athletes was not supported by a significant between-group difference. It is inaccurate to infer superiority from one regression percentage being numerically larger. Non-significance does not establish that every playing level is identical.

The results support matching MG-M imagery to a confidence goal as a candidate for further testing in youth sport. The contribution is extending earlier association evidence to younger and recreational athletes as well as competitive players. An intervention would be needed to test whether deliberately increasing MG-M imagery improves confidence or subsequent performance.