TITLE:
Underserved Adolescent Girls’ Physical Activity Intentions and Behaviors: Relationships with the Motivational Climate and Perceived Competence in Physical Education
AUTHORS:
Alex C. Garn, Nate McCaughtry, Bo Shen, Jeffrey Martin, Mariane Fahlman
KEYWORDS:
Perceived Competence; Urban Physical Education; Motivational Climate
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Physical Education,
Vol.3 No.2,
May
23,
2013
ABSTRACT:
This study investigated underserved adolescent girls’ perceptions of the motivational climate in relationship to their perceptions of competence in urban physical education, self-reported physical activity, and future physical activity intentions. A total of two-hundred-seventy-six underserved (i.e., minority, urban, high poverty) adolescent girls completed questionnaires and a multi-step approach was used to test these relationships. First, a trichotomous model of the perceived motivational climate was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and results suggested a good fit of the data. Structural equation modeling analyses were then used to test both direct and indirect relationships between the perceived motivational climates in physical education, perceived competence in physical education, and physical activity outcomes. Findings revealed that the relationship between the perceived motivational climates and physical activity outcomes were best understood when perceived competence in physical education was accounted for as an intermediary factor.