Relationships between perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, and competitive sport level

Psychology of Sport and Exercise 15 (2014) 659e667

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Psychology of Sport and Exercise journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychsport

Relationships between perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, and competitive sport level Allison Rasquinha 1, John G.H. Dunn*, 1, Janice Causgrove Dunn 1, 2 Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, E-488 Van Vliet Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2H9

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 14 March 2014 Received in revised form 30 June 2014 Accepted 12 July 2014 Available online 30 July 2014

Objective: To determine if the level of competitive sport in which people participate is related to levels of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport. Design: A cross-sectional correlational design was employed. Method: A total of 383 (245 female, 138 male) undergraduate students (M age ¼ 20.99 years, SD ¼ 3.40) identified the level of competitive sport in which they were currently involved (i.e., no sport, recreational sport, moderately competitive sport, and highly competitive sport). Participants also completed a domain-specific measure of perfectionism that assessed perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport. Results: Results from sequential regression analyses indicated that competitive sport level explained a significant amount of variance in perfectionistic strivings (p < .001) when the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns was controlled. Competitive sport level did not explain a significant amount of variance in perfectionistic concerns when the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns was controlled. Conclusions: Findings indicate that higher (more competitive/serious) levels of competitive sport are associated with higher perfectionistic strivings in sport. Discussion focusses on the potential roles that (a) the competitive sport environment may have upon the development of perfectionistic strivings in sport, and (b) perfectionistic strivings may play in enabling athletes to compete at higher levels of competitive sport. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Perfectionistic strivings Perfectionistic concerns Sport Competition level

A considerable body of research evidence indicates that perfectionism is closely associated with the cognitive, affective, and behavioral functioning of athletes. For example, perfectionism in sport has been linked to attitudinal body image in competitive female figure skaters (Dunn, Craft, Causgrove Dunn, & Gotwals, 2011), burnout in intercollegiate athletes (Gotwals, 2011), race performance levels of competitive triathletes (Stoeber, Uphill, & Hotham, 2009) and even gold medal successes of Olympians (Gould, Dieffenbach, & Moffett, 2002). Given the salient role that perfectionism appears to play in sport (for recent reviews see Gotwals, Stoeber, Dunn, & Stoll, 2012; Hall, Hill, & Appleton, 2012), identifying and understanding factors that may (a) be associated with the development of perfectionism in sport, and/or (b) influence

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 780 492 2831. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. Rasquinha), [email protected] (J.G.H. Dunn), [email protected] (J. Causgrove Dunn). 1 Fax: þ1 780 492 2364. 2 Tel.: þ1 780 492 0580. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2014.07.008 1469-0292/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

performance/achievement in sport, become important research objectives. In its most basic form, perfectionism can be viewed as a multidimensional dispositional achievement motivation construct that captures the extent to which individuals both strive for flawlessness in achievement settings and are concerned about failing to meet these high performance standards (Flett & Hewitt, 2002). Numerous dimensions of perfectionism have been proposed in the literature and although theorists often disagree over the centrality (or validity) of some dimensions with respect to the conceptualization of perfectionism (see Hall et al., 2012), all dimensions have characteristics that can generally be classified into one of two overarching (i.e., hierarchical) dimensions: namely, perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns (Stoeber & Otto, 2006). Perfectionistic strivings reflect the extent to which individuals set extremely high performance standards for themselves and strive for perfection in achievement settings. In contrast, perfectionistic concerns reflect the extent to which individuals are concerned about failing to achieve the high performance standards that have

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been set by themselves or others and the potential negative social evaluation that may follow (Stoeber & Otto, 2006). As noted by Gotwals et al. (2012), heightened perfectionistic strivings are generally adaptive in sport (when perfectionistic concerns are controlled), whereas heightened perfectionistic concerns are generally maladaptive in sport. Despite ongoing research and debate surrounding the adaptive versus maladaptive roles of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport (see Gotwals et al., 2012; Hall et al., 2012), very little is known “about how individual differences in perfectionism develop” (Stoeber, 2011, p. 139). Although parental pressure has been identified as an environmental factor that can impact development of perfectionism in children and adolescents (Sapieja, Dunn, & Holt, 2011), pressures resulting from different achievement environments such as school or work or sport “are no less important … [yet] virtually no research has been conducted on the role of specific environmental contexts in promoting perfectionism” (Flett, Hewitt, Oliver, & Macdonald, 2002, p. 113). Identifying and understanding these environmental factors could ultimately assist sport psychologists (and coaches) in their efforts to design interventions that are aimed at potentially influencing athletes' perfectionism levels to enhance performance (see Gotwals et al., 2012; Hall et al., 2012). Flett et al. (2002) proposed a developmental model of perfectionism in which culture, peers, teachers, and occupation were specifically identified as environmental factors that could create pressures on people to be perfect; Flett et al. posited that exposure to these environmental pressures could increase the likelihood of people developing heightened perfectionism. In the context of sport, pressures to be perfect can come from various environmental sources including coaches and parents (Dunn, Causgrove Dunn, & Syrotuik, 2002), and the corresponding pressures to attain competitive success and lofty performance goals (whether selfgenerated or socially-imposed) can become magnified at higher (i.e., more serious/elite) levels of competition (Jones, 1995). Given the domain-specific nature of perfectionism (see Dunn, Causgrove Dunn, & McDonald, 2012; Dunn, Gotwals, & Causgrove Dunn, 2005;), it seems reasonable to speculate that athletes may develop higher levels of perfectionism in sport (i.e., perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns) as they engage in higher (or more serious/elite) levels of competition. Although engagement in higher levels of competition may influence the development of perfectionism, it is also possible that certain aspects of perfectionism may actually enhance an athlete's ability to achieve competitive success (Stoeber, 2012). For example, research indicates that heightened perfectionistic strivings in sport have been associated with heightened race performance in competitive adult triathletes (Stoeber, Stoll, Salmi, & Tiikkaja, 2009) and heightened shooting performance among undergraduate student-athletes in a (laboratory) basketball task (Stoll, Lau, & Stoeber, 2008). Stoeber (2012) posited that perfectionistic strivings contain a “motivational quality that give individuals an extra ‘boost’ to do their best, make an additional effort, and achieve the best possible results” (Stoeber, 2012, p. 301). Consequently, heightened perfectionistic strivings may actually enhance the ability of athletes to achieve competitive success which, in turn, may help these athletes progress through increasingly higher levels of competitive sport. Whether the level of competitive sport influences the development of perfectionism, or whether the level of perfectionism enhances the ability of athletes to compete at higher levels, it seems reasonable to speculate that there should be a positive relationship between the level of competitive sport in which people participate and their perfectionistic strivings in sport. To date, almost no research has examined potential links between competitive level and perfectionism in sport. In a study

involving 41 competitive male cyclists (M age ¼ 21.8 years), Ferrand and Brunet (2004) found no significant differences in perfectionism levels between elite competitors (n ¼ 17), national-level competitors (n ¼ 12) and regional-level competitors (n ¼ 13) when perfectionism was measured by the three subscales contained within Hewitt and Flett's (1991) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS). Although these results indicate that competitive level did not systematically differentiate between athletes' perfectionism levels, it is possible that Ferrand and Brunet's study lacked the statistical power to identify differences given the small sample sizes that comprised each competitive category. Furthermore, it is unclear if the version of the MPS employed by Ferrand and Brunet was a global/generic measure of perfectionism or whether it was a domain-specific measure of perfectionism in sport. This is an important issue given that domain-specific measures of perfectionism in sport have been shown to have greater predictive power in sport settings than global (domain-free) measures (see Dunn et al., 2011). In a more recent study involving 323 male and female university students, Anshel, Weatherby, Kang, and Watson (2009) did find differences in (unidimensional) domain-specific perfectionism levels among participants whose highest level of sport involvement was classified as community level sport (n ¼ 34), high school sport (n ¼ 91), state/regional sport (n ¼ 76), or college/national level sport (n ¼ 117). Anshel et al. reported that students who had competed at the state/regional or college/national levels of competition had significantly higher mean levels of perfectionism in sport than students who had only competed up to the highschool level. Somewhat surprisingly, students who had competed at the state/regional or college/national levels of competition did not have significantly higher perfectionism levels in sport than students who had only participated up to community level sport. Given that Anshel, Weatherby, et al. (2009) adopted a unidimensional conceptualization of perfectionism, they were unable to assess the degree to which participants' perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport may have varied across different competitive levels. This is an important limitation because different patterns of scores on these two hierarchical dimensions of perfectionism have shown markedly different relationships with various adaptive and maladaptive correlates in sport (Gotwals et al., 2012; Stoeber, 2011). A recent study by Shaunessy, Suldo, and Friedrich (2011) in the achievement domain of education also points to the potential links between environmental pressures (based upon differing performance standards, requirements, and workloads) and perfectionism levels. Shaunessy et al. examined perfectionism among 319 high school students (M age ¼ 15.74 years) who were either enrolled in an International Baccalaureate (IB) program or a general education (GE) program. Academic entrance requirements for the IB program were extremely high, and the workload and performance expectations that were set for the IB students were considered to be more demanding/rigorous than those required for the GE students (Shaunessy et al., 2011). On a conceptual level, these heightened entrance, workload, and performance expectations for IB students can be considered synonymous with the heightened pressures and performance expectations that generally exist for athletes who are involved in higher (as opposed to lower) levels of competitive sport (see Mallett & Hanrahan, 2004). Shaunessy et al. (2011) reported that IB students, relative to their GE counterparts, had (a) significantly higher expectations for personal performance (as measured by the Standards subscale of the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised [APS-R: Slaney, Mobley, Trippi, Ashby, & Johnson, 1996]da subscale that reflects a component of perfectionistic strivings), and (b) significantly lower perceptions and concerns about failing to meet performance standards (as

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Method

Stoeber, Otto, Pescheck, Becker, & Stoll, 2007]) to measure the two dimensions. The Personal Standards (PS) subscale from the SportMPS-2 and the Striving for Perfection (SP) subscale from the MIPS were selected to measure perfectionistic strivings (see Stoeber, Stoll, et al., 2009). The Concern Over Mistakes (COM) subscale from the Sport-MPS-2 and Negative Reactions to Imperfection (NRI) subscale from the MIPS were selected to measure perfectionistic concerns (see Stoeber, Stoll, et al., 2009). The PS subscale contains seven items that measure the extent to which individuals set high standards of personal performance in sport (e.g., “I have extremely high goals for myself in sport”) and the SP subscale contains five items that measure the extent to which individuals strive for perfect performance in sport (e.g., “In sport, I strive to be as perfect as possible”). The COM subscale contains eight items that measure the extent to which individuals become concerned about making mistakes in sport (e.g., “Even if I fail slightly in sport, for me it is as bad as being a complete failure”) and the NRI subscale contains five items that measure the extent to which individuals react negatively when they fail to reach their performance goals in sport (e.g., “In sport, I get frustrated if I do not fulfill my high expectations”). All four subscales have demonstrated acceptable levels of internal reliability in previous research (as  .70: e.g., Dunn et al., 2002; Dunn, Causgrove Dunn, et al., 2006; Gotwals, Dunn, Causgrove Dunn, & Gamache, 2010; Stoeber et al., 2007; Stoll et al., 2008). Factorial and/or external validity evidence supporting the use of these subscales as measures of perfectionism in sport has also been established in previous research (see Dunn, Causgrove Dunn, et al., 2006; Gotwals & Dunn, 2009; Stoeber et al., 2007). All items comprising the four subscales were randomly ordered within the instrument. Participants responded to items using a 5-point scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree, 5 ¼ strongly agree). Higher composite scores reflected higher perfectionism levels on each respective subscale.

Participants

Procedure

Participants were 383 (245 female, 138 male) undergraduates (M age ¼ 20.99 years, SD ¼ 3.40) from ten faculties at a large Canadian university. The majority of participants were from physical education (59%) or education faculties (20%). Most participants indicated that they were either white (84%) or of Asian descent (9%). All participants had been involved in some type of competitive sport activity since attending junior high school or beyond. In terms of their current levels of competitive sport involvement, 41 participants (33 female) indicated that they were not presently involved in any sport activities, 146 (102 female) were involved in “recreational level sport (i.e., for fun, fitness and/or social reasons),” 70 (42 female) were involved in “moderately competitive/serious sport,” and 126 (68 female) were involved in “highly competitive/serious sport.” For data analytic purposes, competitive level was treated as a continuous variable (1 ¼ no current sport involvement; 2 ¼ recreational level sport; 3 ¼ moderately competitive/serious sport; 4 ¼ highly competitive/serious sport [cf. Maxwell, 2004]) such that a higher score was indicative of involvement in a higher competitive level.

Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the institutional Human Research Ethics Board. One member of the research team collected data from four varsity sport programs (track, hockey, golf, and swimming) and from two large undergraduate classes (health education and sport psychology). The varsity sport programs were targeted in an effort to ensure that the overall sample would have a sufficiently large number of participants (for data analytic purposes) involved in “highly competitive/ serious” sport.3 All participants were treated in accordance with the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010). Data collection took place in classrooms following practices or at the start of regularly scheduled classes. Coaches and instructors left the classrooms prior to the commencement of each data collection episode.

Instruments

A total of 14 missing data points (from a possible 9575 responses) on the perfectionism measure were provided. These missing data points were replaced with mean item scores that were computed by averaging the remaining item scores on the corresponding subscale associated with the missing data point for each individual (see Graham, Cumsille, & Elek-Fisk, 2003).

measured by the Discrepancy subscale of the APS-Rda subscale that reflects a component of perfectionistic concerns). Shaunessy et al. also found that IB students in Grade 12 had significantly higher concerns about failing to meet their performance expectations than IB students in Grades 9 and 10, leading the authors to conclude that, over time, students' “perfectionistic tendencies may be affected by curricular exposure” to “a rigorous academic environment” (p. 73) such as an IB program. Notwithstanding the findings from Ferrand and Brunet's (2004) study with cyclists, the combined results reported by Anshel, Weatherby, et al. (2009) and Shaunessy et al. (2011) indicate that differences in environmental conditions (based upon performance and workload standards/requirements) may be systematically linked to perfectionism levels in different achievement settings. The results reported by Shaunessy et al. also reinforce the importance of assessing perfectionism as a multidimensional construct given that the pattern of results relating to differences in perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns were not the same across the IB and GE students (i.e., IB students had higher strivings but lower concerns than GE students). To this end, the overarching purpose of this study was to determine if the level of competitive sport in which people participate is related to perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport. Following the premise that individuals who participate in higher or more competitive/serious sport (as opposed to lower or more recreational sport) are likely to be “more competitive, possess a higher need to achieve (in sport settings), have higher expectations, and … fear the consequences of failure [in sport]” (Anshel, Weatherby, et al., 2009, p. 215), we speculated that involvement in higher levels of competitive sport would be positively associated with higher perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport.

Sport perfectionism Stoeber (2012) recently suggested that perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns “are best captured when each dimension is measured with multiple scales” (p. 296). To this end, we selected a total of four subscales from two established measures of perfectionism in sport (i.e., the Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-2 [Sport-MPS-2: Gotwals & Dunn, 2009] and the Multidimensional Inventory of Perfectionism in Sport [MIPS:

Results Preliminary data analyses

3 A total of 108 varsity athletes participated in the study, all of whom selfclassified their sport involvement as “highly competitive/serious sport.”

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Although Stoeber (2012) suggests that the PS and SP subscales are good “proxy measures” (p. 296) of perfectionistic strivings, and that the COM and NRI subscales are good proxy measures of perfectionistic concerns (also see Gotwals et al., 2012; Stoeber, Stoll, et al., 2009), no previous research has examined the latent structure of the items that comprise these four subscales when the items/subscales are combined in a single measure of perfectionism. Consequently, a series of principal axes factor analyses (with direct oblimin rotations: delta ¼ 0) were conducted upon the correlation matrix of the perfectionism responses. The total sample was employed (N ¼ 383) in an effort to maximize the stability of the correlation matrix that was being analyzed (see Gorsuch, 1983). The number of factors to be retained was based upon the combination of results from a parallel analysis (Lautenschlager, 1989) and Cattell's (1978) scree test. Examination of the resulting eigenvalues (l1 ¼ 12.47, l2 ¼ 2.31, l3 ¼ 1.05, l4 ¼ 0.97) using both parallel analysis and the scree-test criteria provided clear support for the retention of two factors. The initial pattern matrix for the 2factor solution contained three items that had poor simple structure (Thurstone, 1947), as evidenced by strong cross loadings (>.40) on both factors. These three itemsdtwo of which were taken from the SP subscale of the MIPS (i.e., “In sport, it is important for me to be perfect in everything I attempt” and “In sport, I feel the need to be perfect”) and one of which was taken from the NRI subscale of the MIPS (“In sport, I get frustrated if I do not fulfill my high expectations”)dwere subsequently removed and the identical set of factor analytic procedures was again employed to assess the latent structure of the remaining 22 items. Table 1 contains the pattern loadings for the final 2-factor (22item) solution (following a direct oblimin rotation). Both factors were highly interpretable and the set of items exhibited strong simple structure (Thurstone, 1947). All eight items that measured concern over mistakes and all four items that measured negative reactions to imperfection had strong pattern coefficients (>.40) on the first factor. In accordance with theory, Factor 1 was labeled perfectionistic concerns (see Stoeber, 2012). All seven items that measured personal standards and the three items that measured striving for perfection had strong pattern coefficients (>.40) on the second factor. In accordance with theory, Factor 2 was labeled perfectionistic strivings (see Stoeber, 2012). Both factors collectively explained 58.90% of the variance associated with the 22 items (prior to rotation). The correlation between the two factors was .59. For all remaining data analyses, subscale scores were computed for each perfectionism dimension. Specifically, a composite subscale score for perfectionistic concerns was computed by adding each respondent's raw scores on the 12 perfectionistic-concerns items (then dividing this score by 12 to produce a mean item score) and a composite subscale score for perfectionistic strivings was computed by adding each respondent's raw scores on the 10 perfectionistic-strivings items (then dividing this score by 10 to produce a mean item score). Descriptive statistics Table 2 contains the means, standard deviations, and internal consistency coefficients (alpha) for perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns for males and females. In all cases, the perfectionism subscales demonstrated strong internal consistency (all as  .90) and were positively correlated for males (r ¼ .61, p < .001) and females (r ¼ .72, p < .001).

Table 1 Pattern coefficients for principal axes factor analysis of perfectionism items. Full item description

Factor F1

The fewer mistakes I make in sport, the more people will like me. Even if I fail slightly in sport, for me it is as bad as being a complete failure. If I fail in competition, I feel like a failure as a person. People will probably think less of me if I make mistakes in competition. In sport, if something does not go perfectly I am dissatisfied with the whole performance. In sport, I feel depressed if I have not been perfect. If I do not do well all the time in sport, I feel that people will not respect me as an athlete. If I perform well but only make one obvious mistake in the entire competition, I still feel disappointed with my performance. I should be upset if I make a mistake in sport. If a team-mate or opponent (who plays a similar position to me) performs better than me during competition, then I feel like I failed to some degree. In sport, I feel extremely stressed if everything does not go perfectly. In sport, I become furious if I make mistakes. I think I expect higher performance and greater results in my daily sport training than most athletes. I set higher achievement goals than most athletes who compete in sport. I feel that other athletes generally accept lower standards for themselves in sport than I do. I have extremely high goals for myself in sport. In sport, I strive to be as perfect as possible. It is important to me that I be thoroughly competent in everything I do in sport. I hate being less than the best at things in sport. In sport, I am a perfectionist as far as my targets are concerned. In sport, I want to do everything perfectly. If I do not set the highest standards for myself in sport, I am likely to end up as a second-rate athlete.

F2

COM

.92

.29

COM

.89

.14

COM

.85

.13

COM

.84

.11

NRI

.82

.06

NRI

.81

.01

COM

.75

.03

COM

.70

.03

COM COM

.60 .54

.08 .15

NRI

.51

.23

NRI PS

.45 .22

.22 .98

PS

.24

.94

PS

.29

.93

PS SP PS

.06 .15 .08

.86 .68 .68

PS SP

.29 .32

.55 .50

SP PS

.31 .18

.49 .40

Note. N ¼ 383. Pattern coefficients  .40 are highlighted in bold. Inter-factor correlation ¼ .59. Subscale abbreviations: PS ¼ personal standards; COM ¼ concern over mistakes; SP ¼ striving for perfection; NRI ¼ negative reactions to imperfection.

concerns [when examining the] … relationships of the two dimensions [with other variables of interest in sport]” (p. 137: also see Gotwals et al., 2012). Consequently, we conducted two sequential regression analyses (on the total sample: N ¼ 383) that allowed us to assess the degree to which competitive sport level could explain variance in perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns when controlling for the overlap between strivings and concerns. Perfectionistic strivings or perfectionistic concerns were entered as the dependent variable in the respective analyses.

Table 2 Means, standard deviations, and internal consistencies (a) for perfectionism variables. Subscale

Regression analyses Stoeber (2012) recommends that it “is important to control for the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic

Subscale

Perfectionistic strivings Perfectionistic concerns

Males (n ¼ 138)

Females (n ¼ 245)

M

(SD)

a

M

(SD)

a

3.62 2.81

(0.73) (0.78)

.90 .92

3.21 2.70

(0.85) (0.85)

.93 .93

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Previous research indicates that gender may be systematically linked to athletes' levels of perfectionistic strivings and concerns in sport (see Anshel, Kim, & Henry, 2009; Dunn et al., 2005; 2012). Consequently, the potential influence of gender on perfectionism was controlled by entering gender as the independent variable (1 ¼ male, 2 ¼ female) in the first step of each analysis (cf. Stoeber, Stoll, et al., 2009; Stoeber, Uphill, et al., 2009). In the second step of each analysis, either perfectionistic strivings or perfectionistic concerns were entered as the independent variable (depending upon whether concerns or strivings had been respectively entered as the dependent variable), and competitive sport level (1 ¼ nonsport, 2 ¼ recreational, 3 ¼ moderately competitive, 4 ¼ highly competitive) was entered as the independent variable in the third step of each analysis. Prior to running the analyses, data (i.e., strivings, concerns, gender, and competitive level) were screened for the presence of multivariate outliers. All Mahalanobis distances were 15.400 (c2 [4] ¼ 18.47, p < .001) indicating the absence of multivariate outliers (see Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996; pp. 66e68). There were no multicollinearity issues within the data (all Variance Inflation Factors  1.54) and no individual cases existed that would have had a major influence on the results had these cases been removed (all Cook's distances  0.04). As seen in Table 3, gender (Step 1) was a significant predictor of perfectionistic strivings (with males having higher strivings than females), whereas gender was unrelated to perfectionistic concerns. When the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns was controlled (Step 2), competitive sport level (Step 3) explained an additional 11% of the variance in perfectionistic strivings (p < .001). The positive regression coefficient for competitive level (b ¼ .36) indicates that involvement in higher levels of competitive sport tends to correspond with higher perfectionistic strivings in sport for the current sample of undergraduate students. When perfectionistic concerns was entered as the dependent variable (controlling for gender and the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns), competitive sport level (Step 3) did not explain a significant amount of additional variance in participants' perfectionistic concerns (see Table 3).4

Discussion The purpose of this study was to determine if the level of competitive sport in which people participate is related to perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport. Significant positive bivariate correlations were obtained between competitive sport level and perfectionistic strivings, and between competitive sport level and perfectionistic concerns (both ps < .001). In other words, these correlations generally supported our expectations

4 It may be argued that the inclusion of non-sport participants could unduly affect the regression results because (according to theory) sport may not be perceived as a valued achievement domain in their lives. This, in turn, may result in non-sport participants reporting extremely low levels of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport that could potentially influence the resulting regression slopes. To rule out this possibility, we conducted the same series of sequential regression analyses but excluded all respondents (8 males, 33 females) who were not currently involved in any sort of competitive sport. The pattern of results from these analyses was the same as when these individuals had been included. Specifically, when gender and the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns was controlled, competitive sport level was positively associated with perfectionistic strivings (b ¼ .34, p < .001). Similarly, when gender and the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns was controlled, competitive sport level was not related to perfectionistic concerns (b ¼ .03, p ¼ .54). A more detailed summary of these results is available upon request from the Corresponding author.

663

Table 3 Summary of contributions of each independent variable entered at each step in the sequential regression analyses predicting perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns. Predictor Perfectionistic strivings Step 1 Gender Step 2 Perfectionistic concerns Step 3 Competitive level Total R2 Perfectionistic concerns Step 1 Gender Step 2 Perfectionistic strivings Step 3 Competitive level Total R2

DR2

b

r

sr2

.23**

.23

.05**

.67**

.69

.45**

.36**

.58

.11**

.05** .45** .11** .61** .00 .06

.06

.00

.48** .74**

.69

.35**

.05

.36

.00

.00 .48**

Note. N ¼ 383. Numerical classification for gender: 1 ¼ male, 2 ¼ female. Numerical classification for competitive level: 1 ¼ no current sport involvement; 2 ¼ recreational sport; 3 ¼ moderately competitive sport; 4 ¼ highly competitive sport. Abbreviation: sr2 ¼ squared semi-partial correlation. **p < .001.

that higher levels of competitive sport would be associated with higher levels of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport. These results appear to be in accordance with the findings of Anshel, Weatherby, et al. (2009) who reported that undergraduate students with state/regional or college/national levels of sport involvement tended to have higher levels of (unidimensional) perfectionism in sport than students who had only competed up to high-school level. Although the bivariate correlations provide valuable insight into the relationships between competitive sport level and perfectionism, these correlations fail to account for the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns. This is an important limitation because previous research has shown that when the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns is controlled, the relationships between these perfectionism dimensions and other criterion variables in sport often change (Gotwals et al., 2012; Stoeber, 2011, 2012). When the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns was controlled, competitive sport level explained a significant amount of additional variance in perfectionistic strivings. The positive regression coefficient indicated that increased competitive levels were associated with increased perfectionistic strivings in sport. In contrast, when the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns was controlled, competitive level did not explain additional variance in perfectionistic concerns. This latter finding is particularly noteworthy given that competitive sport level had a significant positive zero-order correlation (see Table 3) with perfectionistic concerns (r ¼ .36, p < .001). In other words, the variance in perfectionistic concerns that was explained by competitive level was also shared with (or explained by) perfectionistic strivings, further reinforcing Stoeber's (2012) call to consider the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns when assessing relationships between these perfectionism dimensions and other variables in sport. It seems to make theoretical sense that athletes at higher competitive levels would have higher perfectionistic strivings in sport. Individuals who participate in higher levels of competitive sport (especially at the elite level) are generally characterized by

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having an intense commitment to their sport that is accompanied by a strong desire to achieve competitive success (see Mallett & Hanrahan, 2004). In contrast, people who participate in lower (i.e., less competitive/serious or more recreational) levels of sport are often less inclined (than those involved in higher levels) to focus their attention on attaining competitive (or outcome-focused) goals (see Hall, Rodgers, & Barr, 1990), and are often more intrinsically motivated to participate for fun and excitement or for the re, & opportunity to learn new skills (see Fortier, Vallerand, Brie Provencher, 1995). If these underlying motivational differences did exist among participants at different competitive levels, it seems reasonable to speculate that people in higher levels of sport would adopt higher perfectionistic strivings because the attainment of high personal performance standards is likely to be viewed as a requisite condition for accomplishing competitive goals. Moreover, as people become involved in higher levels of competitive sport, it is possible that the attainment of high performance standards (in a valued achievement domain) would be more likely to enhance the performer's self-worth (see McArdle, 2010), whereas the identity and self-concept of people involved in lower levels of competitive sport are far less likely to be tied to success in sport (see Lamont-Mills & Christensen, 2006). The aforementioned argument implies the potential existence of a developmental link between competitive sport level and perfectionistic strivings. However, as indicated in previous sportperfectionism research, it is also possible that higher perfectionistic strivings may facilitate an athlete's ability to attain higher performance levels in sport (see Stoeber, Uphill, et al., 2009; Stoll et al., 2008). Research in non-sport settings (e.g., music achievements and work-related aptitude tests) has also shown that heightened perfectionistic strivings are associated with enhanced performance (see Stoeber & Eismann, 2007; Stoeber & Kersting, 2007). If heightened perfectionistic strivings do indeed facilitate a person's ability to achieve higher performance standards (by virtue of enhanced emotional and motivational qualities: Stoeber, 2011), then it seems reasonable to propose that the undergraduate students in this study may have progressed through increasingly higher levels of competitive sport by virtue of their higher perfectionistic strivings in sport. Although competitive sport level did not explain a significant amount of additional variance in perfectionistic concerns in the regression analysis (see Table 3), a brief discussion of potential reasons why a significant positive (bivariate) relationship existed between competitive sport level and perfectionistic concerns is still warranted. Making performance errors or mistakes will likely pose a greater degree of threat to the self-concept of people involved in higher levels of competitive sport because their self-worth or identity is more likely to be contingent upon success in this valued achievement domain (in comparison to those involved in lower levels of sport where a person's self-concept or identity is less likely to be tied to success in sport: see Lamont-Mills & Christensen, 2006). Moreover, people involved in high levels of competitive sport often perceive extreme pressures to meet high and at times unrealistic performance standards that may be set by coaches, media, and/or spectators (see Cresswell & Eklund, 2006); these pressures are much less likely to exist to the same degree at lower competitive levels of sport. Under the aforementioned conditions, it would not be surprising to see people holding higher perfectionistic concerns in sport as they progress through higher levels of competition (cf. Shaunessy et al., 2011). Nevertheless, we should reiterate that competitive sport level did not account for a significant amount of variance in perfectionistic concerns when the overlap between strivings and concerns was controlled. As such, the inferences generated on the basis of the bivariate correlations should be interpreted with caution.

The discovery that gender was a significant predictor of perfectionistic strivings (with males reporting higher strivings than females), but was not a significant predictor of perfectionistic concerns is somewhat similar to findings in a study conducted by Dunn et al. (2005) with intercollegiate athletes. Dunn et al. (2005) found that male student-athletes had significantly higher selforiented perfectionism in sport (see Hewitt & Flett, 1991)da component of perfectionistic strivingsdthan female studentathletes, but no significant gender difference in student-athletes' levels of socially prescribed perfectionism in sport (see Hewitt & Flett, 1991)da component of perfectionistic concerns. Interestingly, the opposite pattern of results was reported in another study by Dunn et al. (2012) that also examined sport perfectionism levels among male and female intercollegiate athletes. Dunn et al. (2012) found no significant gender difference in student-athletes' selforiented perfectionism in sport, but did find a significant gender difference in athletes' socially prescribed perfectionism in sport. It should also be noted that other research with athletes has found no gender differences in perfectionism across a variety of subscales that represent sub-dimensions of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns (e.g., Gotwals, Dunn, & Wayment, 2003), yet other research has found higher perfectionistic concerns in female athletes than male athletes (e.g., Anshel, Kim, et al., 2009). We concur with Stoeber (2012) who argued that research examining gender differences in perfectionism in sport has “produced inconclusive or inconsistent findings” (p. 302). Clearly more research is necessary to determine if gender should be treated as an important variable in sport perfectionism research or if gender should ultimately be dismissed as “a characteristic in which males and females do not show meaningful [perfectionism] differences” (Stoeber, 2012, p. 302) in sport settings. What are some implications for researchers that emerge from the results of this study? First, we recommend that investigators be wary of collapsing perfectionism responses from athletes across markedly different levels of competitive sport into a single (heterogeneous) sample for data analytic purposes because competitive level may be systematically influencing the results of the study. To illustrate this point, consider a hypothetical study in which athletes (from a wide range of competitive levels) are collapsed into a single data set. The participants are asked to provide ratings of their perfectionistic strivings in sport as well as their pre-competition state self-confidence levels. According to previous research, athletes who report higher perfectionistic strivings in sport would be expected to report higher levels of pre-competitive state selfconfidence (see Stoeber et al., 2007). On the basis of such a finding, the researcher might conclude that heightened perfectionistic strivings create a greater propensity for athletes to experience higher pre-competition self-confidence. Although this may indeed be true, it is also possible that a meaningful amount of state self-confidence variance in this instance could have been explained by the competitive level in which the participants were engaged. Under these conditions, competitive sport level may be functioning as a confounding variable in the study. A cursory examination of the sport-perfectionism literature indicates that researchers have combined perfectionism responses from athletes across a wide range of competitive levels into single data sets for analytical purposes without (apparently) checking to ensure that competitive level is not systematically related to perfectionism levels (e.g., Dunn et al., 2011; Hill, 2014; Sagar & Stoeber, 2009). Further to the previous point, on the basis of the significant regression coefficient that was obtained for gender as a predictor of perfectionistic strivings (see Table 3), it appears that researchers should carefully examine (or control for) potential gender effects that might exist within their data when combining male and female perfectionism responses into single data sets for analytic purposes.

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A cursory examination of the sport-perfectionism literature again indicates that researchers appear to have combined perfectionism responses from males and females into single data sets without having checked to ensure that gender was not systematically related to participants' perfectionism levels (e.g., Anshel, Weatherby, et al., 2009; Martinent & Ferrand, 2006; Stoeber et al., 2007). We wish to stress that our selection of exemplar studies above (that appear to have combined perfectionism responses across competitive levels and/or gender without having considered the validity-implications of these data-treatment strategies) was not conducted in a systematic manner, nor is it our intention to criticize the important contributions that these studies have made to the scientific understanding of perfectionism in sport. Rather, our sole intention in selecting these studies was to illustrate that researchers may be unintentionally overlooking important environmental factors (e.g., competitive sport level) and/or personal factors (e.g., gender) that could potentially alter the interpretation (or validity) of the inferences that are being made on the basis of the studies' results. Despite the importance of the aforementioned recommendations, it should be noted that the current study is not without limitations. The most obvious limitation relates to the crosssectional design that was employed. This design precludes the opportunity for researchers to make inferences about the underlying causal direction of the relationships that were observed between competitive sport level and perfectionistic strivings/ concerns in sport. Specifically, it is impossible to determine if the level of competitive sport in which people participate causes them to develop higher perfectionistic strivings in sport or if higher perfectionistic strivings in sport enable people to achieve success in sport which facilitates their ability to become involved in higher levels of competition. Indeed, the possibility that people with higher perfectionistic strivings may have simply been more inclined to perceive their sporting environment as being more competitive than people with lower perfectionistic strivings cannot be ruled out. The underlying causal nature of the relationships observed in this study clearly warrants attention in future research. A second limitation relates to the fact that no efforts were made to assess the underlying reasons why participants tended to have higher perfectionistic strivings (and to a lesser degree, higher perfectionistic concerns) in higher levels of competitive sport. For example, it is not possible to determine if students in higher competitive levels had higher perfectionistic strivings because they saw the value in adopting higher standards of personal performance in order to achieve success and/or if they adopted higher standards as a consequence of experiencing heightened social pressures from coaches, parents, teammates, and/or the media that often accompany involvement in higher levels of sport (see Cresswell & Eklund, 2006). Future research is clearly required to examine the underlying reasons why perfectionism is apparently linked to competitive sport level. A third limitation relates to the fact that the sample was comprised solely of undergraduate students. As such, it is not possible to assess the degree to which the current results may generalize, for example, to a youth sport context (where parental pressures to achieve high performance standards are often more salient to athletes: Dunn, Gotwals, Causgrove Dunn, & Syrotuik, 2006) or to an adult sport context where people engage in competitive sport activities in their leisure time (where parental and coach pressures to achieve high performance standards would presumably be less salient to athletes). The absence of information about the students' participation motives (or motivational orientations) is another limitation of this study. As mentioned previously, people who compete in recreational sport often have very different motives for participating in sport compared to people who compete in highly competitive (or

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elite) levels of sport (see Fortier et al., 1995; Hall et al., 1990; Lamont-Mills & Christensen, 2006). Similarly, previous research has indicated that various sub-dimensions of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns have different relationships with other motivational constructs including autonomous (self-determined) and controlled (non-self-determined) forms of motivation in sport (see Mouratidis & Michou, 2011). It is therefore not possible to determine if potential differences in participant motives may have been systematically linked with perfectionistic strivings/ concerns or the levels of competitive sport in which the current sample of undergraduate students were involved. Indeed, the absence of measures of specific situational characteristics that may have differed across the respective competition levels (e.g., training demands, coach/teammate/media pressures, years of competitive experiences) also precludes the opportunity to determine if such situational factors may have influenced the perfectionism levels of participants in this study (see Flett et al., 2002). Finally, it may be argued that the reliance upon participants' self-classification of their competitive sport level may have introduced measurement error that threatens the validity of the inferences in this study. For example, it is conceivable that a student who participated in the most introductory level of intramural (i.e., recreational) sport may have classified this as “highly competitive/ serious sport” within the context of his/her sporting experiences, or that some participants may have used vastly different sets of evaluative criteria to distinguish between what they considered to be recreational sport, moderately competitive sport, and highly competitive sport. Indeed, it is also conceivable that a non-sport participant may have retired from highly competitive sport but was currently no longer involved in any form of sporting activity (yet still held high perfectionistic strivings and/or concerns in sport). Although we acknowledge (a) the potential existence of such cases, (b) our inability to identify or control for these cases, and (c) the validity threats that such cases could pose for the study, we nevertheless feel that the potential influence of such cases would be (or was) minimized by the large sample size that was employed. Moreover, we feel that this self-classification approach may actually overcome potential classification problems that may have occurred had we (the researchers) been left to make this classification (on the basis of students' descriptions of their competitive sport involvement). For example, it is conceivable that an athlete who plays club soccer in the top tier of an adult city league may be classified by the researcher as being involved in highly competitive/serious sport. However, the head coach of an intercollegiate soccer program may classify top-tier club soccer as moderately competitive/serious level of sport (relative to intercollegiate-level soccer that may be classified as highly competitive/serious sport). In other words, there is likely to be ambiguity or disagreement even among researchers and sport professionals (e.g., coaches and sport psychologists) as to what constitutes classification in different competitive levels. As such, there is clearly some value in having participants self-classify their own perceived level of competitive involvement. Although the findings of this study raise many unanswered questions about the reasons why heightened competitive sport level is associated with heightened perfectionistic strivings (and to a lesser degree with heightened perfectionistic concerns) in sport, it is hoped that the results will stimulate research into environmental (and motivational) factors that may contribute to, or be associated with, (a) the development of individual differences in perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns in sport, and (b) the ability of athletes to compete in higher levels of competition. As noted previously, the sport psychology community still knows relatively little about how perfectionism develops in sport (Stoeber, 2011), a point reinforced by Hall et al. (2012) who identified the

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need for more research into environmental factors in sport (e.g., coach pressures) that may influence the development of perfectionism in athletes. Given the domain-specific nature of perfectionism (Dunn et al., 2005), advancing this line of inquiry in sport may ultimately assist researchers in different achievement domains (e.g., school, work, and/or performing arts) to identify, assess, and understand environmental (and motivational) factors that may be linked with the development of perfectionism in different achievement settings. In conjunction with this latter goal, it is hoped that the results of the current study will reinforce the call of perfectionism researchers (e.g., Gotwals et al., 2012; Stoeber, 2011, 2012) to account for the overlap between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns when assessing relationships between these hierarchical dimensions of perfectionism and other variables of interest in competitive sport settings. Funding The research was supported by a grant from the Sport Science Association of Alberta. References Anshel, M. H., Kim, J. K., & Henry, R. (2009). Reconceptualizing indicants of sport perfectionism as a function of gender. Journal of Sport Behavior, 32, 395e418. Anshel, M. H., Weatherby, N. L., Kang, M., & Watson, T. (2009). Rasch calibration of a unidimensional perfectionism inventory for sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10, 210e216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2008.07.006. American Psychological Association. (2010). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx. Cattell, R. B. (1978). The scientific use of factor analysis in behavioral and life sciences. New York: Plenum Press. Cresswell, S. L., & Eklund, R. (2006). The nature of player burnout in rugby: key characteristics and attributions. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 18, 219e239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10413200600830299. Dunn, J. G. H., Causgrove Dunn, J., Gotwals, J. K., Vallance, J. K. F., Craft, J. M., & Syrotuik, D. G. (2006). Establishing construct validity evidence for the Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 7, 57e79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2005.04.003. Dunn, J. G. H., Causgrove Dunn, J., & McDonald, K. (2012). Domain-specific perfectionism in intercollegiate athletes: relationships with perceived competence and perceived importance in sport and school. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13, 747e755. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2012.05.002. Dunn, J. G. H., Causgrove Dunn, J., & Syrotuik, D. G. (2002). Relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and goal orientations in sport. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 24, 376e395. Dunn, J. G. H., Craft, J. M., Causgrove Dunn, J., & Gotwals, J. K. (2011). Comparing a domain-specific and global measure of perfectionism in competitive female figure skaters. Journal of Sport Behavior, 34, 25e46. Dunn, J. G. H., Gotwals, J. K., & Causgrove Dunn, J. (2005). An examination of the domain-specificity of perfectionism among intercollegiate student-athletes. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 1439e1448. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.paid.2004.09.009. Dunn, J. G. H., Gotwals, J. K., Causgrove Dunn, J., & Syrotuik, D. G. (2006). Examining the relationships between perfectionism and trait anger in competitive sport. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 7e24. Ferrand, C., & Brunet, E. (2004). Perfectionism and risk for disordered eating among young French male cyclists of high performance. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 99, 959e967. Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. (2002). Perfectionism and maladjustment: an overview of theoretical, definitional, and treatment issues. In G. L. Flett, & P. L. Hewitt (Eds.), Perfectionism: Theory, research and practice (pp. 5e31). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Flett, G. L., Hewitt, P. L., Oliver, J. M., & Macdonald, S. (2002). Perfectionism in children and their parents: a developmental analysis. In G. L. Flett, & P. L. Hewitt (Eds.), Perfectionism: Theory, research and practice (pp. 89e132). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. re, N. M., & Provencher, P. J. (1995). Competitive Fortier, M. S., Vallerand, R. J., Brie and recreational sport structure and gender: a test of their relationship with sport motivation. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 26, 24e39. Gorsuch, R. L. (1983). Factor analysis (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Gotwals, J. K. (2011). Perfectionism and burnout within intercollegiate sport: a person-oriented approach. The Sport Psychologist, 25, 489e510. Gotwals, J. K., & Dunn, J. G. H. (2009). A multi-method multi-analytic approach to establishing internal construct validity evidence: the Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale 2. Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, 13, 71e92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10913670902812663.

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