Psychology of Sport and Exercise 9 (2008) 686–703 Development and validation of the Achievement Goal Scale for Youth Sports $ Sean P. Cumming a,Ã , Ronald E. Smith b , Frank L. Smoll b , Martyn Standage a , Joel R. Grossbard b a School for Health, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK b Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1525, USA Received 23 October 2006; received in revised form 12 July 2007; accepted 25 September 2007 Available online 2 October 2007 Abstract Objective: The objective was to develop and validate an achievement goal scale for young athletes that was aligned with the 2 (mastery/ego)  2 (approach/avoidance) achievement goal framework. Method: A total of 1675 male and female athletes ranging in age from 9 to 14 years participated in the AGSYS scale development and validation phases. Items having a readability level of grade 4 (age 9) or below were written and evaluated in a series of studies to assess the reliability, factorial validity, and construct validity of the Mastery and Ego scales. Design: Both correlational and experimental methods were used to assess reliability and validity. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated factorial validity in samples of 9–10-, 11–12-, and 13–14-year-old athletes, and the subscales correlated in a predicted fashion with one another, with other sport and academic goal orientation measures and with several other theoretically relevant variables, including coach-initiated motivational climate, competitive trait anxiety, sport enjoyment, motivation, and self-esteem. Scores also changed significantly in response to a motivational climate coach intervention. Conclusion: The Achievement Goal Scale for Youth Sports (AGSYS) appears to be a reliable and valid measure of achievement goal approach orientations in children between the ages of 9 and 14 years. We were not successful in developing corresponding avoidance goal orientation scales that were not highly correlated, raising the possibility that children do not cognitively differentiate between mastery-avoidance and ego-avoidance orientations. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Scale development; Achievement goal orientation measurement; Psychometric validation ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/psychsport 1469-0292/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2007.09.003 $ This research was supported in part by Grant 2297 from the William T. Grant Foundation. We express our appreciation to the following for their assistance in data collection: Erica Coppel, Polo DeCano, Kira Elste, Christopher Harris, Leslie Lombardo, Kim Matz, Cheree Monroe-Wilson, Olivia Morrow, Tori Nutsch, Dana Ryan, Jason Victor, and Nathalie Walker. Ã Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1225 386 251; fax: +44 1225 383 833. E-mail address: s.cumming@bath.ac.uk (S.P. Cumming).