Motives for sports practice in young soccer and volleyball athletes

Abstract

The reasons why athletes, especially young people, seek to adhere to sports practice has aroused the interest of research. The aim of this study was to identify the reasons for the sports practice of young soccer and volleyball athletes according to gender, age, family economic class, practice time and level of competitiveness. 188 athletes, 56 volleyball athletes and 132 soccer players aged 10-16 participated in the study. The reasons for the sport were identified through the Participation Motivation Questionnaire (PMQ). The data were analyzed through Covariance Analysis. The results indicated that, in general, the most important reason for sports practice was “Technical Competence” (4.51±0.54), followed by factors of intermediate importance: “Competition” (4.30±0.73), “Group Activity” (4.29±0.71) and “Physical Fitness” (4.25±0.64). Low-income families (C) attributed greater importance to the motivation factors related to “Social Recognition” and “Group Activity”. Athletes with lower practice time conceded less relevance to “Group Activity” and “Affiliation”, while those with a national competitive level demonstrated greater importance to all motivation factors, with the exception of “Competition.” Young athletes have been motivated to practice sports, especially for reasons related to self-realization, improvement of technical skills and overcoming challenges. Differences were also identified between family economic class groups, practice time and competitive level in the motivation factors for sports practice.

Sport Practice Motives of Brazilian Pupil-Athletes

“…When analyzing the results of the present study with pupil-athletes, it is notable that the reasons for the practice of sport in pupil-athletes, in general, are similar to some other studies, which also obtained results showing that the dimensions Competition and/or Technical Competence are the most important for the practice of sports [24][25][26]. This finding should not be seen as unusual, since it is totally understandable that this population has a preference for reasons that are associated with success in the sporting context.…”

“…In addition, it also disregards the result of the most important reasons for the practice of sports being related to the search for improvement and maintenance of technical skills. Some investigations [25] direct attention to the dimensions that were pointed out with a lesser value of importance in this study: Affiliation and Emotion. There are hypotheses that these dimensions associated with intrinsic motivation could be responsible for the decision to practice a sport modality [28].…”

Motivation in Competitive Sport among Female Youth Athletes

“…In another study, gender motivations were compared in team sports versus individual sports, and it was found that female athletes had higher overall motivation to participate in sports than male athletes (Moradi et al, 2020). Another finding in the context of gender comparisons in team sports (i.e., football and volleyball) showed that girls and boys attached importance to the same three motives for participating ("technical ability", "competition" and "group activity") but differed in the level of importance of each factor (Vignadelli et al, 2018). This, added to findings showing a significant gap in drop-out numbers between the genders, increases the importance of investigating motivational patterns among female athletes to join sport activity, to persist in participation and finally to drop out.…”

“…According to research studies, significant components of individual intrinsic motivation include enjoyment of play and competition (Soares et al, 2013), im-Psychology proving abilities and performance, the ability to face challenges and competitions (Vignadelli et al, 2018), a sense of ability, a sense of comfort with oneself, and belonging and connection to a team (Zarrett et al, 2020). It was explained that these interpersonal factors are Influenced both by personal experiences in sports and by the opinions of other important people in their environment such as family and friends (Zarrett et al, 2020).…”

Autodeterminação, suporte parental e coping: comparação em diferentes fases da carreira atlética de futebolistas

“…Os principais fatores motivacionais desta fase são o prazer, competência técnica, afiliação e condição física. Aderem à uma modalidade por perceber que é muito divertido estar ao lado de amigos, conhecer novas pessoas e que isso facilita atingir as desejadas competências e aptidões físicas (Vignadelli et al, 2018).…”