Significance: Increasing children's motivation to engage in physical activity is of particular importance. Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory targets personal motivation (1985), suggesting that all individuals possess three innate psychological needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Behaviors or participation in certain activities meets these needs, increasing intrinsic motivation. Failure to satisfy these needs, however, results in unhappiness and displeasure toward physical activity (Standage, Duda, & Ntoumanis, 2005). This qualitative study describes the influence of (1) perceived motor competence and (2) motives for engagement in physical activity among children. Little has been heard about children's motivation to be physically active from their own voices.
Design: Forty-seven children (33 males, 14 females) aged 8-12 year, were recruited from a summer activity program. Multiple data sources were utilized to examine the child's perceptions. Each child participated in a 20- to 30-minute semi-structured tape-recorded interview that assessed his/her motives for participation and perceived motor competence. An interview guide (Patton, 2002) structured the conversations. During the interview, each child also completed two formal inventories. Inventories were the Motives for Physical Activities Measure (MPAM) (Deci & Ryan, 1997) and Perceived Competence Scale (Williams, Freedman, & Deci, 1998). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic and inventory data that were gathered from individual participants, and constant comparative techniques were used to analyze responses from semi-structured interviews (LeCompte & Schensul, 1990).
Results: Students ranked interest/enjoyment as their strongest motivator for participation (75%); followed by competence (12%), fitness (10%), appearance (5%), and social variables (0%). Interestingly, 66% of the participants ranked appearance as their least important motive. Several critical themes emerged. First, children pursued their favorite sport/activity for reasons of interest/enjoyment or, in their words, “for fun.” Second, respondents indicated that they intended to remain active as they grew older primarily by pursuing their favorite activity. Third, when participants were asked who had the greatest influence on teaching them the most about a particular activity, the physical education teacher was rarely mentioned. Finally, youth sport coaches, parents, and siblings were referred to most frequently when asked who taught them the most about their favorite activity. This study provides important information about the psychological determinants that explain why children elect to participate in physical activity; confirming that student's motives and perceived competence are viable constructs for promoting activity.