Are There Differences in Motives Between Participants in Individual Sports Compared to Team Sports?

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this study was to explore which motives dominate among adolescents when it comes to participation in individual versus team sports. We expected that intrinsic motives will dominate in both groups. We also had a hypothesis that those who compete in individual sport will have higher scores on intrinsic and lower on extrinsic motivation than those in team sport. We also expected that intrinsic motives would explain why they had chosen individual sports instead of team sport. The participants were 78 athletes, 39 in team sports and 39 in individual. Participants’ motives were assessed with the Motives for Physical Activity Measure - Revised (MPAM-R). The extrinsic motive “fitness” had highest score in both groups, followed by the intrinsic motives “interest/enjoyment” and “competence”. The only motive with a difference between team and individual sport was the intrinsic motive interest/enjoyment. The participants in team sport had a higher score on interest/enjoyment than those in individual sport. We conducted a regression analyze to explain why pupils chose individual instead of team sports. “Interest/enjoyment” had an explanation when we included this as a single independent variable. If they participated in team sport they had a higher score on the intrinsic motive “interest/enjoyment”. When we included all the motives none of them had an explanation. In conclusion we could not find any differences in motives for participation in team versus individual sport. We also only partly found support for the assumption that adolescents mostly are intrinsic motivated for participating in sport.