| Although researchers discovered the existence of several predictors of physical activity among youth (e.g., sociocultural factors; Sallis, Prochaska, & Taylor, 2000), the significant impact that cohesion holds on physical activity patterns cannot be overlooked. Considering the association between the experiences in physical activity during childhood/adolescence and the physical activity patterns during adulthood (Thompson, Humbert, & Mirwald, 2003), the study of potential influences on physical activity among youth gains importance. The present thesis was designed to achieve two objectives. The first objective was to create a questionnaire to measure the perceptions of cohesion held by Francophone youth. Participants (n = 187) responded to a preliminary cohesion questionnaire containing 87 items. A series of principal component analyses succeeded in reducing the questionnaire, now entitled 'Questionnaire sur l'ambiance sportive des jeunes', to 14 items that represented two dimensions (i.e., task and social cohesion). The second objective was to test the construct validity of the QASJ. This allowed for the examination of the relationships between cohesion and both psychological need satisfaction (i.e., 'Satisfaction des besoins psychologiques' questionnaire; Gillet, Rosnet, & Vallerand, 2008) and sport motivation (i.e., 'Echelle de motivation dans le sport' questionnaire; Briere, Vallerand, Blais, & Pelletier, 1995) that have been demonstrated in previous research with adults (Blanchard, Amiot, Perreault, Vallerand, Provencher, 2009; Buton, Fontayne, Heuze, Bosselut, & Raimbault, 2007; Williams & Widmeyer, 1991). A questionnaire package was administered to students (n = 315) enrolled at French secondary schools, between 13 and 18 years of age, and who were members of a sport team (i.e., varsity or other). The results from a series of bivariate correlations supported the construct validity of this new questionnaire by successfully correlating the dimensions of cohesion to the dimensions of motivation and basic psychological needs. These dimensions were also shown to be predicted by the dimensions of cohesion in a series of regression analyses, thus lending further support for the construct validity of the 'Questionnaire sur l'ambiance sportive des jeunes'. |
