Lecture 18 - Children's Motivation for Involvement in Physical Activity

Question 1

percent of children that engage in recommended amounts of PA

Answer 1

• 49% of boys and 35% of girls ages 6-11 engage in appropriate amounts of moderate and vigorous PA
• of particular concern is that the greatest increase in obesity levels for any age group over the past decade has been children ages 6-11

Question 2

children are more physically inactive than ever before… WHY?

Answer 2

1. children’s excursion into PA and sport almost always occurs in the presence of important (to them) individuals and these significant individuals have great influence
2. adults and children differ greatly in the purposes of their PA. Adult PA involvement is much more likely to be goal directed (reduce BP) behaviour done to improve health
   *it is unlikely that children would engage in purposeful exercise with an interest in attaining these health and fitness goals
   *children live in the moment so their interest in influenced by immediate experiences (FUN)

Question 3

children’s motivation for PA is influenced/affected by ________

Answer 3

THE SOCIAL WORLD IN WHICH THEY ENGAGE
- socialization agents such as parents, siblings, and peers are very important in shaping the child’s PA related attitudes and behaviour
- children may begin to like/dislike certain activities in accordance with the climate established by “significant others” and the belief system of”SO” who have been involved in organizing and structuring the experience

Question 4

Competence Motivation theory

Answer 4

• developed by Susan Harter
• arose out of the desire to explain why children might have the interest and desire to engage in various types of activities or pursue various challenges, or conversely t avoid these types of challenges and activities
  consider perceived control and perceived competence
• when kids feel like they are competent and perceive they have control over their environmental circumstances, they are more likely to want to attempt to master corresponding activities and challenges

Question 5

how can a child’s competence and control in a sport/activity emerge?

Answer 5

children’s competence and control do not emerge in a social vacuum but are rather shaped by SO, particularly parents
- parents can reinforce or strengthen children’s initial attempts at mastery by encouraging the mastery efforts itself as opposed to responding to the quantity of the product of these mastery events
- thus parents can stimulate efforts of mastery through appropriate encouragement and praise
- when children and adolescence have favourable perceptions of their competence and control, they are more likely to select intrinsically motivating and challenging activities that have the potential to result in positive affective outcomes such as enjoyment, pleasure, pride, and satisfaction

Question 6

main influencing factors on children’s participation/motivation for involvement in PA

Answer 6

1. Parental influence
2. Peer influence
3. ~ location
   - kids in rural areas are actually less active than city kids because so much of PA nowadays is organized and rural kids will have to commute

Question 7

parental influence on kids and their involvement in PA

Answer 7

• the influence of parents on shaping their child’s PA involvement would seem to be important in that children almost invariably learn to ride a bike, throw a ball, learn to swim, in the presence of their parent
• parents assume many important roles in the socialization process because they commonly introduce children to various types of PA and they can also serve as important role models
• parents serve as gatekeepers for their children’s PA because children rarely have the ability to make independent decisions about whether they can engage in PA (I want to ski but my parents don’t want to drive up to Crabbe and pay for ski shit)

Question 8

peer influence on kids and their involvement in PA

Answer 8

• the quality of children’s relationships with their peers is another important factor on PA motivation and behaviour (hard to stay in a sport if all your friends think it’s dumb)
• although the type of PA experience will vary, one commonality across PA is that it will take place in the presence of peers, affecting numerous opportunities for both positive and negative forms of peer interactions
  *positive relationships between PA and equipment; kids are more likely to bike a lot if they have access to a bike