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Motivation in High School Sport Athletes: A Structural Equation Model

There is a movement in our culture today to keep young people physically active. Sport is one avenue for physical activity, but teenagers involved in competitive sport often quit and never return to any sort of physical activity (Vanreusal et al., 1997). In light of this, motivational aspects of what keeps high school athletes involved in sport are important to consider. In the current study, athletes on 31 high school sport teams were surveyed to assess their perceptions of motivational climate, motivational needs, motivational regulations, and psychological outcomes. In line with self-determination theory, results for the study showed that a perceived task climate supported the athletes' motivational needs. While relatedness and competence satisfaction were integral parts of the model as anticipated, autonomy satisfaction did not have significant associations with any other variable. Autonomous and controlled motivations were observed to have significant relationships with the outcome variables of athletes' perceived performance, sport satisfaction, and intention to continue sport participation. Furthermore, a number of variables were observed to act as potential mediators in the model. In sum, facets of sport motivation including motivational climate and personal motivation regulations had an impact on how satisfied high school athletes were in their sports, their perceptions of their performance, and their intention to continue to participate in sport in the future. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2012. / October 10, 2012. / high school sport, motivation, motivational climate, self-determination theory, structural equation modeling / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Eklund, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lynn Panton, University Representative; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Jeannine Turner, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183332
ContributorsZomermaand, Kristin L. (authoraut), Eklund, Robert (professor directing dissertation), Panton, Lynn (university representative), Tenenbaum, Gershon (committee member), Turner, Jeannine (committee member), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
PublisherFlorida State University, Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text
Format1 online resource, computer, application/pdf
RightsThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them.

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