Exploring the relationship of passion and goal orientation with university athletes' university experiences

University aged athletes are considered to be in a period of their lives of substantial change and growth. The "emerging adult" stage is presented with newfound independence and challenges suggesting that multiple life events, including sport participation, can have a significant influence on development. Given that a large proportion of students engage in varsity athletics, it is important to understand their impact on development. To test the hypothesis that athletes exhibiting high levels of harmonious passion and task orientation would have an overall better experience in university sport.: A total of 139 male and female university athletes participated in the study. Athletes represented 8 team sports that participated at the varsity and club levels. Independent measures included demographic variables, the Passion Scale, and the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire. The dependent measure consisted of the University Sport Experience Survey (USES) which measures 9 dimensions (5 positive; 4 negative) of athlete development. Of the 5 positive subscales of the USES different variables were associated with each however harmonious passion was associated with all five while task orientation was associated with 3 of the 5 subscales. Each model explained between 17% and 32% of the variance. For the negative experience subscales, ego orientation, eligibility, and harmonious passion were associated with each explaining between 3% and 8% of the variance. Based on the results it can be established that athletes need to become more harmoniously passionate towards their preferred activity and that coaches should create a mastery climate to enhance task orientation.