A self-determination approach to the understanding of motivation in physical education

Background, It is widely acknowledged that Physical Education (PE) can play a potentially important role in enhancing public health by creating positi ve attitudes toward exercise and by promoting health-related fitness progra mmes. However, these initiatives will have limited success if students are not motivated to participate actively in their PE lessons. Aim. A sequence of motivational processes, proposed by Vallerand (1997), wa s tested in this study. The sequence has the form 'social factors --> psych ological mediator --> types of motivation --> consequcnces'. Sample. Participants were 424 British students aged 14-16 years from Northw est England. Method. Questionnaires were used to measure cooperative learning, self-refe renced improvement, and choice of tasks (social factors), perceived compete nce, autonomy, and relatedness (psychological mediators), intrinsic motivat ion, identification, introjection, external regulation, and amotivation (ty pes of motivation), and boredom, effort, and future intention to exercise ( consequences). Results. A SEM analysis showed that perceived competence was the major psyc hological mediator. Intrinsic motivation was related to positive consequenc es, whereas external regulation and amotivation were predictors of negative consequences. A multisample analysis indicated that the model was largely invariant across gender. Conclusions. The findings underline the importance of perceived competence and intrinsic motivation in compulsory PE.