| Description |
Physical activity rates are declining and many adolescents lack adequate motivation for active participation in physical education. The physical education climate refers to goals and values perceived to be endorsed in achievement settings and may be integral to understanding motivation in physical education. Recent achievement goal extensions have examined the teacher's emphasis on mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and social approval goals as relevant to student motivation. Also, researchers examined the influence of a caring climate in relation to physical activity. Self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation have also been shown to be strong predictors of physical activity. To further understand motivation for active participation in physical education, the purpose of this study was to determine whether self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation mediate the relationship between adolescents' perceptions of their physical education climate and their subsequent physical activity. This study utilized a prospective study design. Participants included 275 mostly Caucasian students (138 males, 137 females; M age = 13.32) enrolled in six physical education classes at two junior high schools with a total of four physical educators. Participants completed a multisection inventory, consisting of the Perceptions of Teachers' Emphasis on Goals Questionnaire (PTEGQ), the Caring Climate Scale (CCS), a 6-item questionnaire measuring self-efficacy, the Intrinsic Motivation (IMI), and pedometers were utilized to assess physical activity. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of all measures ranged from .74 to .95 indicating the measures were internally reliable. Mediational analyses indicated that self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation did not mediate the relationship between the physical education climate and physical activity. Path analysis indicated an inadequate fit for the proposed model. Multiple regression analyses revealed a performance-avoidance climate was negatively related to self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation, (? = -.16 and -.18, respectively). Social approval climate positively (? = .18) and perceptions of a caring climate negatively (? = -.18) predicted physical activity. Lastly, self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation both positively predicted physical activity (? = .32 and .38, respectively). The results were limited to junior high school physical education students that included numerous measurement issues. The overall conclusions suggest that high levels of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation optimize physical activity directly rather than as mediators. |
