Situational and Dispositional Achievement Goals’ Relationships with Measures of State and Trait Sport Confidence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis (PROSPERO ID: CRD42024575181) was to quantify the relationships between dispositional and situational achievement goal involvement and sport confidence. A secondary purpose was to examine potential moderators of these relationships. Published studies reporting sufficient data, including one achievement goal measure from the dichotomous framework and one measure of sport confidence in an athlete sample, were included. Information sources included EBSCOhost databases, Web of Science databases, and relevant meta-analyses. The random-effects correlational coefficient (<i>r</i>) served as the summary statistic. Thirty-six studies yielding 37 independent samples, published between 1988 and 2026, which met all inclusion criteria, representing a total of 10,461 participants from youth to elite sports across four continents. Meta-analyzed random-effects correlations between task climate (k = 15, <i>r</i> = 0.33 [95% CI 0.23, 0.43]), ego climate (k = 13, <i>r</i> = -0.08 [95% CI -0.16, -0.00]), task orientation (k = 26, <i>r</i> = 0.27 [95% CI 0.21, 0.32]), ego orientation (k = 26, <i>r</i> = 0.11 [95% CI 0.06, 0.17]), and sport confidence ranged from small and negative to medium and positive in magnitude. Mixed-effects moderator analyses revealed significant differences (<i>p</i> < 0.05) for task climate when comparing state (<i>r</i> = 0.24) versus trait (<i>r</i> = 0.41) sport confidence measures, for task orientation scale (TEOSQ r = 0.31 vs. POSQ <i>r</i> = 0.18) in relation to sport confidence, and for study quality (lowest <i>r</i> = 0.35, medium <i>r</i> = 0.18, highest <i>r</i> = 0.24) in the task orientation-sport confidence relationship. However, nearly all prediction intervals for the examined relationships crossed zero, with the exception of a few TEOSQ- and POSQ-based moderator analyses. Thus, researchers and practitioners are cautioned that relationships between dispositional achievement goals, motivational climate perceptions, and sport confidence might be minimal or vary based on the dispositional achievement goal measure.