Path analysis on the influence of perceived sport competence by other motivational variables

The purpose of this study was to examine children's sport and physical education (PE) participation by focusing on perceived sports competence as suggested in Harter's competence motivation theory (1978, 1981). The study included other related factors of intrinsic/extrinsic motivational orientation, task/ego goal orientation and level of competitive trait anxiety to examine their relationship and predictive ability on perceived sport competence. A total of 2,202 participants from eleven schools of Secondary One, Two and Three, with a mean age of 13.55 years (SD = 2.15) took part in this study. There was a proportional distribution of males (n = 1,056) and female (n = 1,130). Data was collected by using measuring instruments that included the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC; Harter, 1985), Sport Motivation Scale (SMS; Pelletier et al., 1995), Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ; Duda & Nicholls, 1989) and Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT; Martens, Vealey & Burton, 1990). Descriptive statistics were used to generalise the characteristics of the sample. Path analysis using EQS was performed to identify the structure of relationships between different attributes. The results revealed the relationships between perceived sport competence and other motivational attributes were mostly in accordance with Harter's competence motivation theory such that analyses demonstrated significant, modest, positive relationship with intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, and negative relationships with anxiety and amotivation. The relationship with task goal orientation was significant but weak. Examination with path analysis showed that task goal orientation was related to perceived competence through the mediating effect of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. By understanding how these factors affect children's decisions to continue or discontinue participation in PE and sport activities, and how these factors interact with each other, recommendations were made concerning the school PE curriculum and implementation of sport programmes in Hong Kong. Recommendations were also made for future studies. Copyright © 2007 Department of Physical Education, Hong Kong Baptist University.