ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
A conditional process analysis of general self-esteem in student-athletes in lower secondary sport schools
Siv Gjesdal 1
Jan Åge Kristensen 2
Milla Saarinen 3
Christian Thue Thue Bjørndal 1
1. Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway
2. Universitetet i Agder, Kristiansand, Norway
3. Universitetet i Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
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Abstract
Objective: Specialised sport schools at the lower secondary level aim to support the holistic development of young athletes. Consequently, understanding how to influence student-athletes' self-perceptions both inside and outside of the sporting context is of interest. Grounded in Achievement goal theory, this study examined whether achievement goal orientations were related to self-esteem, both directly and indirectly through perceived sport performance. Additionally, we investigated whether athletic identity moderated the indirect relationship between achievement goal orientations and self-esteem. Methods: The sample comprised 579 student-athletes aged 12 to 16 years (Mage = 13.93; SD = 0.85), recruited from seven Norwegian lower secondary sport schools. All participants responded to items concerning their general self-esteem, goal orientations, perceived performance and athletic identity. Results: Regression analyses revealed that athletes' achievement goal orientations were directly and indirectly (via perceived performance) related to their self-esteem. However, athletic identity did not moderate the indirect relationship. Conclusion: Overall, the findings suggest that student-athletes who view success as doing their very best tend to be more satisfied with their own sport performance and experience higher self-esteem. Conversely, athletes who view success as being the best are generally less satisfied with their performance and report lower self-esteem. Notably, these relationships do not appear to be stronger in athletes with a stronger identification with their athlete role.
Summary
Keywords
Dual career, Motivation, Psychosocial factors, talent development, youth sport
Received
19 December 2025
Accepted
17 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Gjesdal, Kristensen, Saarinen and Bjørndal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Siv Gjesdal
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