Background/Purpose Research has shown that physical education students' perceptions of motivational climate relate to their intrinsic motivation. Specifically, task-involving climate has been found to increase intrinsic motivation, while the role of ego-involving climate has yet to be determined in physical education context. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to test the role of student perception of class motivational climate in their intrinsic motivation during school physical education.
Method A sample comprised 758 adolescents (age range 12 to 14) from one middle-sized town, enrolled in eight middle schools in Central Finland. Adolescents' perceptions of task- and ego-involving climate and intrinsic motivation were measured yearly across three middle school years. Latent growth models were estimated and a parallel process latent growth modeling approach was implemented to answer research questions.
Analysis/Results Preliminary confirmatory factor analyses showed acceptable factorial validity and measurement invariance of the scales. In addition, fit indices of the each latent growth model indicated acceptable data fit. The study showed that ego-involving climate increased (αi = 3.38, αs = .11), while task-involving climate (αi = 3.58, αs = -.03) and intrinsic motivation (αi = 3.15, αs = .02) did not change. Although both task and ego-involving climates contributed to the initial level of intrinsic motivation (task R2 = 54%; ego R2 = 21%), only task-involving climate contributed to development of intrinsic motivation across middle school years (R2 = 42%).
Conclusions The findings highlight the importance of task-involving motivational climate as a facilitator of students' intrinsic motivation in physical education.