Achievement Motivation and Sex-Role Orientation of High School Female Track and Field Athletes versus Nonathletes

Abstract

To investigate the differences between female high school track and field athletes ( n = 67) and nonathletes ( n = 67) on level of achievement motivation on Mehrabian's Scale of Achieving Tendency and for sex-role orientation on the Bern Sex-role Inventory. Differences in achievement motivation between the athletes and nonathletes and among the four groups representing sex-role orientation were assessed by a 2 × 4 analysis of variance. Relationships among the dependent variables, namely, achievement motivation and scores on feminine, masculine, and androgynous scales of Bern's inventory were calculated using Pearson coefficients. Female athletes exhibited significantly higher achievement motivation than did the nonathletic girls. Also, high achievement motivation was related to androgynous and masculine sex roles, while low achievement motivation was associated with feminine and undifferentiated sex-role orientations.