The associations between seventh grade Finnish students’ motivational climate, perceived competence, self-determined motivation, and fundamental movement skills

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between motivational climate, perceived competence, self-determined motivation towards physical education (PE) and the fundamental movement skills of Finnish secondary school students. A sample of 370 seventh-grade PE students (girls n = 189; boys n = 181; mean age = 13.08; SD = 0.25) completed measures pertaining to motivational climates, perceived competence, regulation of motivation, and fundamental movement skills. Path analysis revealed results generally consistent with the theoretical tenets of the self-determination and the achievement goal theories by demonstrating that a task-involving motivational climate influenced perceived competence, which in turn affected more self-determined motivation towards PE. Furthermore, results revealed that this motivational sequence was associated with increased balance skill. A sequence consisting of task-involving climate, intrinsically regulated motivation, and balance skills was also observed. Additionally, the results indicated that task-involving motivational climate influenced perceived competence, in turn influencing manipulative and locomotor skills. Finally, an ego-involving climate was found to be a marginally positive predictor of manipulative skills. Key-words: fundamental movement skills • motivational climate • perceived competence • physical education • self-determined motivation EUROPEAN PHYSICAL EDUCATION REVIEW [DOI: 10.1177/1356336X09364714] Volume15(3):315–335:364714 EPER Copyright © 2009 North West Counties Physical Education Association and SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) www.sagepublications.com at Jyvaskylan Yliopisto on July 28, 2010 epe.sagepub.com Downloaded from