Social Comparison and Performance Satisfaction in Competitive School Sports: A Qualitative Study of Benchmark Formation Among Secondary School Students

This qualitative study examines how secondary school students construct standards of acceptable performance during competitive school sports and how those standards influence post-event satisfaction. Drawing on Festinger's social comparison theory, achievement goal theory, goal-setting theory, and self-determination theory, the paper investigates whether students evaluate athletic performance through objective measures alone or through socially available comparison points. Primary data were collected through structured post-event interviews and field observations during a school sports meet in New Delhi. The sample included 20 students between approximately 10 and 16 years of age who participated in sprint and 1500-metre track events across gender and age-height groups. Thematic analysis identified four recurring patterns: the use of nearby competitors as immediate benchmarks, downward comparison as a protective strategy, stronger qualification-oriented dissatisfaction among high-performing or leadership-driven participants, and the importance of encouragement and personal goals in sustaining effort. The study proposes the term Adjacent Competitor Effect to describe the tendency of athletes to define satisfaction by reference to the runner immediately ahead of or behind them, rather than by stopwatch time or absolute rank alone. Findings suggest that school sport is a psychologically rich setting in which students negotiate competence, motivation, self-protection, and aspiration in real time. The paper concludes that educators and coaches should balance healthy competition with mastery-based reflection, helping students use comparison constructively without allowing it to narrow their sense of achievement.