Motivation to participate in physical activity and sports: Age transition and gender differences among India’s adolescents

Abstract

India’s increasing sedentary behavior among children and youth is becoming a national concern. Hence, developing an environment supportive of physical activity and sports would be a major means to increase the participation levels for adolescents. This study aims to examine differences in motivation to participate in physical activities and sports among students of three age categories, namely, early adolescence, middle adolescence and late adolescence. The result of factor analysis yielded a 19-item, four-factor structure on the participation motivation questionnaire (PMQ). Significant differences were found for all three age categories on the two extracted factors of sport action with friends and social status. Further, a significant difference has been identified between sex’s students on the factor of health and fitness and social status. The study provides sound psychometric and comparative results that can potentially be useful for education and formative reviews in applied settings, for research purposes and as a measurement tool for embedding motivation towards participation in physical activities (PA) and sports among adolescents.

Keywords

• sports activities
• adolescent physical activity
• participation motivation
• social status
• popularity