Group Cohesion, Self-Determined Motivation, and Motivational Responses in College Students

Purpose: Despite the health benefits of regular exercise participation, many young adults, especially female college students, adopt and maintain a sedentary lifestyle (ACHA, 2000). A better understanding of the psychosocial predictors of group exercise participation will aid in identifying effective intervention strategies aimed at the prevention of physical inactivity. According to self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), motivation can be characterized along a continuum ranging from amotivation to intrinsic motivation, the highest and most self-determined form that is predicted to facilitate engagement in an activity. It is theorized that group cohesion can foster motivation (Carron et al., 2002) in a group setting. Although conceptual models of group cohesion and self-determined motivation have been used separately to explore students' motivational responses in exercise settings, the relationships among group cohesion, self-determined motivation, and motivational responses such as perceived interest and effort have not been fully explored. The aim of this study was to examine the predictive utility of group cohesion and self-determined motivation toward female college students' exercise interest and effort in group exercise classes.

Methods: Participants were 142 female students who took part in group exercise classes for 50 minutes per day, three times per week, for 13 weeks at a southeastern university. They completed surveys to assess their perceptions of group cohesion [Individual Attractions to Group-Task (ATG-T), Individual Attractions to Group-Social (ATG-S), Group Integration-Task (GI-T), and Group Integration-Social (GI-S); (Blanchard et al., 2000)], self-determined motivation (Markland & Tobin, 2004), and perceived interest and effort (McAuley & Duncan, 1989) during the final week of the class. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine the predictive utility of group cohesion and self-determined motivation on students' perceived interest and effort.

Analysis/Results: The correlations revealed a positive pattern of relationships among the group cohesion variables, and measures of group cohesion were related to students' interest and effort. Self-determined motivation, however, was not related to group cohesion. Regression analyses showed that intrinsic motivation (β = .26, p< .05) and ATG-T (β = .40, p< .01) were positive predictors of perceived interest (η² = 36.9 %). ATG-S (β = .22, p< .05) was only predictor of perceived effort (η² = 13.4%).

Conclusions: The results suggest that ATG-T and ATG-S play an important role in the motivational responses of female exercise participants. These findings empirically supported the arguments that creating a supportive and desirable group environment is an effective approach to enhancing students' participation in regular exercise programs.