Chapter 7: Self-Efficacy and Adolescents in Sport and Physical Activity

Physical activity and participation in sport expose young people to situations that create optimal challenges, moments of uncertainty, or even great frustration and disappointment. What distinguishes sport and physical activity from other achievement domains is that the learning and performance of a skill is physical, and, thus, performance markers are observable to others. In addition, in competitive sport, performance markers are also often normative. For example, how well one performs in a tennis match is understood in relation to the opponent’s performance. With physical ability and the consequences of competition readily on display, the likelihood of adolescents continuing their involvement and enjoyment highly depends on how they navigate the highs and lows of these sport and physical activity experiences.