Perceived competence among interscholastic sport participants and dropouts.

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between perceived competence and length of involvement in sport for sport participants and their counterparts who discontinued involvement. The relationship between participants (n = 239) and dropouts (n = 43) in a number of school-sponsored sports, years of experience and gender on perceived physical competence was examined using Harter's (1979) Perceived Competence Scale for Children. Results indicated a significant but somewhat low relationship between length of participation experience and perceived physical competence. The findings also indicated that participants in school-sponsored sports were significantly higher in perceived physical competence than were dropouts, and males were significantly higher in perceived physical competence than females.