The Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire: Testing for Measurement Invariance and Latent Mean Differences in Spanish and Portuguese Adolescents

Abstract

Within the theoretical framework of achievement goals (Nicholls, 1989 Nicholls, J. G. 1989. The competitive ethos and democratic education, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]), Duda and Nicholls (see Duda, 1989 Duda, J. L. 1989. The relationship between task and ego orientation and the perceived purpose of sport among male and female high school athletes. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology., 11: 318–335. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Duda & Whitehead, 1998 Duda, J. L. and Hayashi, C. T. 1998. “Measurement issues in cross-cultural research within sport and exercise psychology”. In Advances in sport and exercise psychology measurement, Edited by: Duda, J. L. 471–483. Morgantown, WV: FIT. [Google Scholar]) developed the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) to assess individual differences in achievement goal orientations. This study searches for validity evidence of the TEOSQ in the case of Spanish (2473) and Portuguese (2486) junior high school. The results showed that factor structure, factor loadings, and intercepts could be considered invariant across groups. Between group differences in latent means showed slightly higher mean scores for the Spanish group for both factors. The results also provide high support for the internal consistency of both the Spanish and Portuguese versions of this scale.