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Fifty-five girls and 67 boys (ages 7-15 yrs) from five ringette and six hockey teams completed pregame and postgame questionnaires at 12 games of their youth sport schedule. Multiple-regression analyses were performed to identify the best predictors of the reported fun level experienced in each of the 12 games. Variables entered into the regression equations included the following: age and sex; pre- and postgame measures of state anxiety and affect, activation, and motivation mood states; pregame measures of choice, how well one expected to play, and confidence that one's team would win; and post-game measures of game outcome, level of challenge in the game, how much was at stake, and how well one played. Postgame positive affect, how well one played, and challenge were consistently the best predictors of fun. When the postgame mood state measures were deleted, game outcome also became an important predictor. The results are interpreted as indicating that fun in youth sports is a positive mood state largely determined by one's perception of personal achievement and the matching of one's skills against a realistic challenge. The results are interpreted as being consistent with the theoretical perspectives of Csikszentmihalyi (1975) and Nicholls (1984a).

This study examined the ability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to predict training adherence in a sample of adolescent competitive swimmers. Participants (N= 116, mean age = 14.8 years), who were drawn from 19 competitive swimming clubs from across Canada, completed measures relating to TPB before a major training cycle in their swim season. Results showed that training intention was significantly related to training behavior and that the direct measures of TPB (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) predicted a significant portion of the variance in the measure of training intention. Subsequently splitting the attitude measure into affective and instrumental components revealed that the instrumental portion of the attitudinal measure contributed significantly to predicting training intention, whereas the affective portion did not. These findings suggest that TPB offers insight into training behavior and that the two measures of evaluative attitude contribute differently to predicting training intention.

A 10-item Thurstonian paired comparison inventory pertaining to factors underlying sport enjoyment was administered to 822 youth sport participants. The sample included participants at four age levels (7-8, 9-10, 11-12, and 13-14 years) from the three sports, soccer (n = 330), baseball (n = 176), and hockey (n = 343). Considerable consistency was found across both sport and age levels in the relative importance of the different enjoyment factors. Factors that were interpreted as being intrinsic to the sport activity (excitement of the sport, personal accomplishment, improving one's skills, testing skills against others, and just doing the skills) were consistently rated as being most important, whereas more extrinsic or outcome-related factors (pleasing others, winning rewards, winning the game) were consistently rated least important of the 10 factors. The social items “being on a team” and “being with friends” were consistently of intermediate importance. The results are interpreted in terms of contemporary views of intrinsic motivation, and suggestions are offered both for future research and for youth sport practice.

A review of open-ended and structured approaches to assessing youth sport motivation reveals that each has certain strengths and limitations. Hence, the method of choice for a particular study will depend upon the particular problem addressed. In order to examine the comparability of results obtained from different methodologies, a study was conducted to compare the results pertaining to factors underlying sport enjoyment obtained from open-ended and Thurstonian paired comparison inventories. Although a number of similarities appeared in the results across the two methodologies (e.g., personal accomplishment, excitement of the sport, and just doing the skills were important, while getting rewards and pleasing others were relatively unimportant), there were also some differences reflecting the particular methodologies. A consideration of previous research employing a broader variety of methodological approaches (open-ended, ranking, Likert scaling, Thurstone paired comparisons) further indicates that although the particular methodology utilized does affect the results obtained, certain important motivational factors tend to surface regardless of the methodology employed.

The interpersonal relationships of older adults have long been recognized as important determinants for their physical activity involvement. To date, researchers in this field have tended to focus on positive social influences, such as social support. Furthermore, in most studies, operational definitions of social support have stressed the source of the support (e.g., family support and friend support) rather than the nature of the support provided by these groups and individuals. In order to clarify the social context of physical activity among older adults, more attention should be paid to exploring both positive and negative social influences on physical activity. The objectives of this paper were to consolidate current findings concerning social influences and physical activity among aging adults, and to identify major positive and negative social influences from the literature that are associated with physical activity and health-promoting behaviors among aging adults. The development of a more comprehensive and representative method of measuring social influences in physical activity settings is advocated.