Climat motivationnel en éducation physique et besoins psychologiques : impact sur les buts d’accomplissement, les attitudes et les habitudes des élèves
To better understand the issue of teenagers’ lack of motivation in physical education and towards physical activity in general, this study proposes to verify the relationships between, on one hand, the motivational climate (mastery and performance) and the basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy and relatedness) of students of both gender and, on the other hand, the achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach and performance-avoidance) they pursue in physical education. This research project also investigates the influence of achievement goals on the teenagers’ attitudes and habits towards physical activity in general. To meet these objectives, 909 students (age mean = 13,87[0,94]) filled self-reported questionnaires on three occasions during the school year. Structural equation models (AMOS 22), invariance analyses and the unconstrained approach were used to analyse the data. Results show that students’ achievement goals vary in accordance to the perception of the motivational climate and that the perceived competence has a positive relationship with the three types of achievement goals. Those relationships were invariant across groups (boys and girls). Furthermore, only one climate/need interaction was significant: the interaction between mastery motivational climate and perceived autonomy negatively predicts the adoption of performance-avoidance goals. This means that perceiving a mastery motivational climate reduces the adoption of performance-avoidance goals but only for students with high feelings of autonomy. Finally, pursuing mastery and performance-approach goals in physical education has a positive impact on students’ attitudes which, in turn, affect their habits in physical activity. Only the adoption of performance-approach goals has a direct positive relation with students’ habits in physical activity in general. In conclusion, physical education teachers can have a positive influence on students’ motivation and engagement during physical education classes—¬but also outside that environment—by promoting a mastery motivational climate and by satisfying their students’ competence need.
Interactions Motivational climate Achievement goal Competence Autonomy Relatedness Physical education Physical activity Interactions Structural equation modeling