Psychological Science ›› 2013, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (5): 1048-1053.

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Motivation Model of Urban Residents’ Physical Exercise

1,   

  • Received:2012-06-12 Revised:2013-06-05 Online:2013-09-20 Published:2013-09-20

城市居民参加体育锻炼的动机路径模型建构

付桂芳1,项明强2   

  1. 1. 广东外语外贸大学
    2. 广州体育学院
  • 通讯作者: 项明强

Abstract: Few Chinese people participating in physical exercise is an important issue. Statistics of the Ministry of Health in Healthy China 2020 Strategic Planning indicate that 83.8% Chinese residents over the age of 18 never participate in physical exercise in 2010, which consists of 73.2% of city residents. Scarce of interest in sports is a primary factor to influence people to participate in physical exercise. Therefore it is important to stimulate the exercise motivation. Self-determination theory (SDT) insists that there are various levels of sports motivation including controlled motivation (external regulation & introjected regulation) and autonomous motivation (identified regulation & integrated regulation). The sports motivation keeps higher level only when controlled motivation converts into autonomous motivation which underlies enduring sports behavior. Whether the external environment satisfies personal psychological needs (autonomy need, ability need, and relationship need) is another factor related to sports motivation. Few indigenous research has been conducted to promote physical exercise of urban residents based on SDT. In this study,we hypothesized the relationship between autonomy support of coach and physical exercise intentions of urban residents was mediated by basic need satisfaction and autonomous motivation. Data was collected from 350 urban residents of 18 to 56 years old. Eighteen percentage of the urban residents did not finish high school, 24.9 % of them finished high school, 21.1% of them had college degree, and 36% had bachelor degree or above. The 6-item Sport Climate Questionnaire, Basic Need Satisfaction Scale with 9-item, Exercise Self-Regulation Questionnaire with 17-item by Deci and Ryan(2011)and self-edited physical exercise scale with one item were used. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the structure of Sport Climate Questionnaire and Basic Need Satisfaction Scale. In this study, their internal reliabilty estimate α were .93 and .85 respectively. Exercise Self-Regulation Questionnaire was revised according to the modified index and standard load. Comfirmatory factor analysis supported a four-dimension structure with 13 items. We edited physical exercise scale according to an operational definition of sports population to ensure its reliability and validity. Structural equation fitting results supported the hypothesized nested intermediary model. The results suggested autonomy support, basic psychological need, autonomous motivation and exercise intentions were closely related with each other, which matched SDT well. And external regulation was negatively associated with Autonomy support, basic psychological need, autonomous motivation and exercise intentions. Introjected regulation was not significantly correlated with autonomy support, basic psychological need and exercise intentions, which might be affected by the Chinese traditional "frail" aesthetic concept. Namely autonomy support of coach could not only directly predict exercise intentions, but also indirectly predict exercise intentions through 3 mediating variables: basic psychological need, autonomous motivation, and the interaction between them. The intermediary effect of basic psychological need, autonomous motivation and the interaction accounts for 44%, 17% and 37% respectively. To sum up, this study aims at promoting urban residents’ exercise intentions. The results partially confirmed this hypothesis. To build motivation model of urban residents’ exercise intentions based on SDT is an effective method to promote urban residents to participate in physical exercise and Nationwide Fitness Campaign.

Key words: urban residents, exercise intentions, self-determination theory, path of motivation

摘要: 基于自我决定理论,调查350名体育锻炼者以构建城市居民体育锻炼的动机路径模型。结果表明:自主型动机与自主性支持、基本心理需求、锻炼意向有正相关,外在调节与前述各变量均有负相关,而内摄调节与前述各变量无显著相关,可能受中国传统“文弱”审美观念及现代生活压力影响;结构方程拟合结果支持嵌套中介模型,即社会体育指导员的自主性支持可正向直接预测锻炼意向,亦可通过基本心理需求、自主型动机和基本心理需求×自主型动机三个中介变量正向间接预测锻炼意向。

关键词: 城市居民 锻炼意向 自我决定理论 动机路径