Changes of Adolescent Boys' Motivational Regulations in a Summer Camp

Background/Purpose: Motivational regulations are important to individuals’ engagement, performance and learning in a variety of settings including physical activity (Deci & Ryan, 1985). They include: amotivation (i.e., lacking an intention to participate), external regulation (i.e., obtaining rewards or avoiding punishment), introjected regulation (i.e., avoiding guilt or anxiety), identified regulation (i.e., because of personal importance), and intrinsic motivation (i.e., participating for fun or enjoyment). Considerable cross-sectional research has examined motivational regulations among children and youth in physical education/physical activity settings. However, the longitudinal development of motivational regulations remains unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine changes in motivational

Method: The setting was a 3-week summer sports camp located in the Southwestern United States. As part of a larger study, participants were 66 at-risk boys aged 10-13 (M age = 11.56, SD = .98) attending the camp over two summers. The population was 50% was Hispanic-American, 24.2% Caucasian-American, and 22.7% African-American. The boys completed the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-2 (Markland & Tobin, 2004) during their regularly scheduled camp activities both in 2012 and 2013.

Analysis/Results: A repeated measures MANONVA examined whether boys’ motivational regulations changed over a two-year period. The results revealed a significant change over time, F(5, 61) = 3.80, p < .01, η^2 = .24. Univariate tests indicated that boys’ scores significantly declined from 2012 to 2013 on external regulation (M(2012) = 2.97, M(2013) = 2.67; F(1, 65) = 4.29, p < .05, η^2 = .06), introjected regulation (M (2012) =3.27, M(2013) = 2.83; F(1, 65) = 9.93, p < .01, η^2 = .13), identified regulation (M (2012) = 3.95, M(2013) = 3.48; F(1, 65) = 15.18, p < .001, η^2 = .19), and intrinsic motivation (M(2012)  = 4.12, M(2013) = 3.68; F(1, 65) = 12.13, p < .01, η^2 = .16).

Conclusions: Overall, boys’ motivational regulations scores decreased across two years’ participation at the camp. This result supports existing research that children become less motivated to participate in physical activities as they become older (Deng, Castelli, Castor-Pinero, & Guan, 2011). The decline may be also due to the effects of participating in the same camp activities from year to year. Further research might identify strategies that foster autonomous motivational regulations in camp activities.