Sport Motivation in the Transition from Primary to Secondary School

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to compare sport practice motivation of Primary and Secondary education students, and to analyze the differences in relation to gender, their favorite sport and the way its practice is organized (federated or not). 704 students from 6 centers in the province of Cadiz, Spain, participated in this study; they were 9 to 16 years old. Motivation was reported using the questionnaire Motivation of Physical Education. Differences in motivational dimensions were analyzed by U Mann-Whitney test. Primary school children showed a higher intrinsic motivation, identified regulation and external regulation –and a lower lack of motivation– than secondary students. Results indicate that gender, the kind of sport and the way it’s organized affect teenagers, whose motivational levels are lower than those obtained by Primary School children. In this context, it seems crucial to implement measures to maintain motivational levels in Secondary Education, focusing on girls, individual practitioners and non-federated sports.