Gender differences with regard to physical activity motivation and behavior in physical education and leisure time

Objectives: Given a widespread continuous decrease in children’s and adoles-cents’ physical activity (PA), the potential of physical education (PE) in promoting young people’s PA motivation and behavior has become a key issue in research. Based on the self-determination theory (SDT) of Deci and Ryan (1985), the present study aimed to ex-amine gender differences with regard to PA motivation and behavior during PE and lei-sure time (LT). Previously, girls were found to be more self-determined than boys (Wil-liams & Deci, 1996), but showed lower self-reported PA and were meeting the PA guide-lines of the WHO to a lesser extent (Trost et al., 2002).
Method: 244 students (139 girls and 125 boys) from 11 to 21 years participated in the study. PA motivation was assessed via a digital questionnaire containing the scales need support (Standage, Duda and Ntoumanis, 2005), basic needs (BPNES; Vlachopou-los, Ntoumanis & Smith, 2010), external and intrinsic motivation in PE (PLOC-R; Vla-chopoulos et al., 2011) and in LT (BREQ-II; Markland & Tobin, 2004). PA behavior was measured through a self-report questionnaire (Schmidt, Will, Henn, Reimers & Woll, 2016). Additionally, 76 students (38 girls and 38 boys) wore an accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3X-BT) over seven consecutive days to measure PA behavior objectively, too.
Results: With regard to PA motivation, girls reported a lower fulfillment in the basic need of competence during PE and scored higher in the external motivation during PE and LT than boys. In contrast, boys reported higher rates of intrinsic motivation during PE and LT. Concerning PA behavior, boys showed higher PA than girls for self-reported and objectively measured PA in PE and LT. Independently of gender, higher levels of intrinsic motivation were associated with increased self-reported PA.
Discussion: In conflict with previous findings, girls reported a lower intrinsic motiva-tion in PA than boys. As girls simultaneously show lower self-reported and objectively measured PA, future intervention programs should focus on strengthening the more in-ternally driven behavior of girls in order to foster regular PA.
Key Reference:
Deci, E.L. & Ran, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behav-ior. New York: Plenum Press.