| The benefits of sports and exercise involvement are well documented, but many young people do not regularly participate in these activities. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine possible motives relevant to young people's choices for participating in physical activity by analyzing five types of motivations and five types of behavioral regulations in relation to physical activity type. A sample of 384 students enrolled in Julian Charter School were placed into organized sports (n = 197) and not in organized sports (n = 187) groups. The Motives for Physical Activities Measure-Revised (MPAM-R) was employed to gather information on five motives for physical activity participation. The Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-2 (BREQ-2) was used to assess five types of behavioral regulations for physical activity involvement. Separate MANOVAs and appropriate follow-up ANOVAs were conducted to compare scores between students from the two groups. The findings of the MPAM-R indicated a significant difference between groups (F (5, 371) = 10.359, p < .05, partial ?2 = .123), with those involved in organized sports (M = 5.062) scoring higher on the (a) Interest/Enjoyment, (b) Competence, (c) Fitness, and (d) Social subscales than those not involved in organized sports (M = 4.497). The findings of the BREQ-2 also indicated a significant difference between groups (F (5, 372) = 7.466, p < .05, partial ?2 = .091), with those involved in organized sports (M = 1.772) scoring higher on the (a) Intrinsic Regulation, (b) Identified Regulation, and (c) Introjected Regulation subscales than those not involved in organized sports (M = 1.513). Organized sports and other physical activity practitioners may want to consider the findings of the present study as they plan out their individual programs. Additional research conducted on subjects from other types of traditional and non-traditional schools, private club sports teams, and city and county recreation programs, along with comparing motivation and behavioral regulations between populations from different types of sports (e.g., football vs. golf) and sports programs (e.g., club vs. recreation) may also provide additional insight as to what motivates different populations of youth to be physically active. |
