Promoting enjoyment in girls’ physical education: The impact of goals, beliefs, and self-determination

This study examined the network of relationships between sport ability beliefs, achievement goals, self-determination and female students’ enjoyment in school physical education (PE). Female secondary students (n = 343) from a single-sex secondary school in Singapore participated in the survey. They were assessed on sport ability beliefs, goal orientations, relative autonomy, perceived competence and enjoyment in PE. The findings established that incremental belief predicted task orientation. In addition, relative autonomy, task orientation and perceived competence had strong and direct impact on enjoyment. Overall, the present study offers some insightful thoughts for promoting enjoyment for girls in PE and physical activity. Key-words: enjoyment • goal orientation • physical education • self-determination • sport ability beliefs The benefits of regular physical activity are well established. Essentially, it has been documented that the benefits of regular physical activity in young people include areas such as cardiovascular fitness, psychological health, skeletal health, blood pressure, body composition and glucose, insulin and blood lipids levels (Biddle et al., 1998; Bouchard et al., 1994; Sallis, 1994). Despite the evidence supporting the benefits of physical activity participation, there is a decline in participation in physical activity in young people over their teenage years, and this decline is particularly obvious in girls (Pratt et al., 1999). Physical education (PE) in schools faces a major challenge in promoting girls’ involvement in sport and physical activity, thus understanding motivation among girls in sport and PE contexts (Biddle, 2001; Duda and Hall, 2001) is a research priority (Sallis et al., 1992). Many studies have shown that adolescent girls are less likely than their male counterparts to participate in physical activity (see Pratt et al., 1999; Vescio et al., 2005). As a result, they may put themselves at a greater risk of diseases, as well as miss out on the other benefits often claimed for participation in physical activity and sport. Furthermore, several recent studies have found evidence of lower participation EUROPEAN PHYSICAL EDUCATION REVIEW [DOI: 10.1177/1356336X07076875] Volume13(2):145–164:076875 EPER Copyright © 2007 North West Counties Physical Education Association and SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) www.sagepublications.com unauthorized distribution. © 2007 North West Counties Physical Education Association, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or at National Institute of Education on January 1, 2008 http://epe.sagepub.com Downloaded from rates and higher drop out rates among girls than boys in school sport (e.g. De Knop et al., 1996; Schofield et al., 2002). Malaxos and Westwood (1997) established that the attrition rates for school sport remained very high, with almost 60 percent of females dropping out by the age of 15. Therefore, there is a need to increase our understanding of motivational determinants associated with physical activity in youth, particularly among female participants. The purpose of this study was to examine young females’ motivation towards PE in schools using a combination of sport ability beliefs (Biddle et al., 2003a; Dweck, 1999; Wang and Biddle, 2001), achievement goal theory (Duda and Hall, 2001; Nicholls, 1989) and self-determination theory framework (SDT; Deci and Ryan, 1985; Ryan and Deci, 2000a, 2000b). Wang and Biddle (in press) have shown that integrating these three theories could provide a comprehensive explanation of young people’s physical activity behaviour. Sport ability beliefs Research investigating the motivation of children and youth in physical activity has shown that the beliefs people hold about their ability could be one of the major influencing factors (Wang and Biddle, 2001). For example, girls may not like sport or exercise because they have a pre-existing belief that they are not ‘cut out’ to be sporty people. This is closely linked to two different ways in which people construe ability in achievement settings such as sport and PE classes. According to Dweck and her colleagues (Dweck, 1999; Dweck and Leggett, 1988; Hong et al., 1995), some people see ability as an acquirable skill that can be increased through practice and effort. People with this incremental theory adopt a learning or task goal in skill development. They tend to view mistakes as part of learning and seek challenges that provide opportunities to increase their skills and competencies. In contrast, some people view ability as a capacity or fixed entity, and they cannot do very much to change that inherent aptitude. These people tend to adopt a performance or ego goal, and they strive to establish how much ability they have compared with others. In doing so, they prefer tasks that demonstrate their superiority and avoid tasks that show up their inadequacy. High effort exertion is seen as low ability, so easy tasks are preferred. When faced with obstacles, children with entity beliefs tend to show detrimental performance, and negative affect and cognitions. In comparison, those with incremental beliefs tend to show more adaptive motivational patterns, such as persistence, positive affect and effective problem-solving strategies (Dweck, 1986; Mueller and Dweck, 1998; Wang and Biddle, 2001). In physical activity settings, Wang and Biddle (2001) found that high incremental belief was one of the key factors affecting intrinsic motivation towards PE. Entity or fixed belief, however, resulted in less adaptive motivational profiles. They also found that girls tended to be over-represented in the less adaptive motivational profiles as compared to boys. For example, the ‘amotivated’ cluster was 65.5 percent female and the ‘poorly motivated’ cluster was 66.3 percent female, while males were 146 E U RO P E A N P H YS I C A L E D U C AT I O N R E V I E W 1 3 ( 2 ) unauthorized distribution. © 2007 North West Counties Physical Education Association, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or at National Institute of Education on January 1, 2008 http://epe.sagepub.com Downloaded from over-represented in the ‘highly motivated’ cluster (66.8%). The less adaptive profiles were characterized by low task orientation, low incremental beliefs, high entity beliefs, low perceived competence, low RAI and high amotivation, while the highly motivated profile had the opposite pattern. Typically, sport ability beliefs are assessed through the use of the Conception of the Nature of Athletic Ability Questionnaire (CNAAQ; Sarrazin et al., 1996). In a recent psychometric study, Biddle et al. (2003a) revised the original six first-order factor measurement model (Learning, Improvement, Specific, Gift, Stable and General) to four first-order factors (Learning, Improvement, Stable and Gift) and two higher-order factors (Incremental and Entity), using confirmatory factor analysis. That is, entity beliefs were underpinned by stable and gift beliefs, and incremental beliefs were underpinned by learning and improvement beliefs. They named it CNAAQ-version 2. In addition, they also found that entity and incremental beliefs predicted ego and task goal orientations, respectively. A recent study that examined the cross-cultural validity of the CNAAQ-2 between British and Singaporean samples found that the measurement tool had an invariant factor form and structure, as well as cross-cultural applicability (Wang et al., 2005). However, the relationship between the latent means seemed to differ between the two countries. As this was the only study involving an Asian sample, further examination of the CNAAQ-2 among Singaporean samples is warranted. Achievement goal theory The major theoretical tenet of achievement goal theory is that individuals strive to demonstrate ability and to avoid displaying incompetence in an achievement context. Thus, individuals are assumed to differentially endorse two different and subjective ways of defining success and failure, and judging their competence (Nicholls, 1989). A task-oriented person tends to define success or judge his or her competence in a self-referenced manner, based on self-improvement or investing effort in task mastery. In contrast, an ego-involved person tends to define success in a normative fashion. Here, one aims to beat others or to outperform others with less effort. It is hypothesized that task-oriented individuals, regardless of their levels of perceived competence, exhibit positive or adaptive motivated behaviour. Similarly, ego-oriented individuals with high perceived competence should also have adaptive motivational patterns (Dweck, 1986; Nicholls, 1984, 1989). However, those with low perceived competence are likely to exhibit maladaptive motivational responses. A recent systematic review on the correlates of achievement goal orientation was conducted by Biddle and his colleagues with a total of 98 studies and 110 independent samples (N = 21,076) (Biddle et al., 2003b). The results support the positive consequences of task orientation for motivation, while an ego orientation may not be ideal for the promotion of students’ interest and motivation. In Biddle et al.’s review (2003b), it was found that self-reported positive affect (such as enjoyment, satisfaction and pride) had a moderate-to-large positive association WA N G & L I U : P RO M OT I N G E N J OY M E N T I N G I R L S ’ P E 147 unauthorized distribution. © 2007 North West Counties Physical Education Association, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or at National Institute of Education on January 1, 2008 http://epe.sagepub.com Downloaded from with a task orientation but no relationship with an ego orientation. Furthermore, negative affect had a small negative association with a task orientation but no relationship with an ego orientation. However, the experimental study done by Spray et al. (2006) established that task and ego involvements affected the markers of intrinsic motivation. This shows that achievement goals are important variables to consider when examining motivational determinants. According to the theories, sport ability beliefs are seen as antecedents of achievement goals (Biddle et al., 2003a; Dweck, 1999; Dweck and Leggett, 1988). Spray and his colleagues (Spray et al., 2006) provided support for the causal links between conceptions of sport ability and situational achievement goals. Using a field experimental design, they induced entity and incremental beliefs among 123 secondary school students in a sport task. Achievement goals were measured before and after failure. The results showed that the participants in the incremental group were more likely to adopt learning goals than the participants in the entity group, while the entity group was more likely to adopt comparison goals than the incremental group and the control group. Ability attributions for failure were stronger for the entity group than the incremental and control groups. Self-determination theory Motivation is not a simple dichotomous concept. In the self-determination theory proposed by Deci and Ryan (1985; Ryan and Deci, 2000a, 2000b), motivation is proposed to be a multidimensional concept. They presented a more differentiated view of motivation to explain the perceived forces that regulate human behaviour. On one side of the self-determination continuum, intrinsic motivation represents the motivation when one is doing something for its own sake and not for external rewards. On the other side of the continuum, extrinsic motivation is doing something as a means to an end. A state of amotivation also exists as one of the regulatory processes in self-determination theory. It refers to the relative lack of motivation, where an absence of contingency between actions and outcomes is perceived and reasons for continuing involvement cannot be found (Pelletier et al., 1995; Vallerand and Fortier, 1998). According to Deci and Ryan (1985), amotivation is labelled as the ‘external boundary’ of extrinsic motivation, and is seen as similar to feelings of helplessness. The self-determination theory also posits that there are at least three main types of extrinsic regulatory processes: external regulation, introjected regulation and identified regulation. External regulation is characterized by behaviour that is controlled by external forces, such as rewards or punishments. Introjected regulation is behaviour controlled by internal pressure to act, such as avoidance of guilt and shame. Identified regulation involves acting out because behaviour is seen as personally important. It should be noted that Deci and Ryan (1985) also included integrated regulation as the most self-determined form of extrinsic motivation in the continuum. However, this regulation is developmentally less appropriate for children and adolescents (Vallerand and Fortier, 1998). In addition, all the instruments measuring 148 E U RO P E A N P H YS I C A L E D U C AT I O N R E V I E W 1 3 ( 2 ) unauthorized distribution. © 2007 North West Counties Physical Education Association, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or at National Institute of Education on January 1, 2008 http://epe.sagepub.com Downloaded from behavioural regulations in sport and exercise settings, including Perceived Locus of Causality (Goudas et al., 1994) which was adapted from Ryan and Connell’s (1989) Self-Regulation Questionnaire; Sport Motivation Scale (Brière et al., 1995), Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaires (Mullan et al., 1997) did not include integrated regulation. Therefore, integrated regulation was excluded in this study. Ryan and Connell (1989) suggested that these different types of motivation lie along a continuum of relative autonomy (self-determination continuum), ranging from least self-determined to highly self-determined, in the order of: external, introjected, identified and intrinsic. A Relative Autonomy Index (RAI) can be computed by weighting each subscale. Positive RAI indicates more self-determined regulation, whereas negative RAI indicates more controlling regulation. Koestner and Losier (2002) argued that, although the use of RAI may mask the relative contribution of each type of motivation, it does provide useful information about the ‘big picture’. Self-determination theory is closely linked to achievement goal theory (see Ntoumanis, 2001). Studies have shown that variations in achievement goals impact on different degrees of self-determination. For example, task orientation is linked to intrinsic motivation or more self-determined motivation, whereas ego orientation is associated with more controlling type of behavioural regulation (Deci and Ryan, 1987, 2000; Wang and Biddle, in press).