An extended trans-contextual model of motivation for health-related physical activity was tested in samples from four nations. The model proposes a motivational sequence in which perceived autonomy support from teachers in a physical education (PE) context and from peers and parents in a leisure-time physical activity context predict autonomous motivation, intentions and physical activity behaviour in a leisure-time context. A three-wave prospective correlational design was employed. High-school pupils from Britain, Estonia, Finland and Hungary completed measures of perceived autonomy support from PE teachers, autonomous motivation in both contexts, perceived autonomy support from peers and parents, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and intentions from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and measures of behaviour and past behaviour in a leisure-time context. Path-analyses controlling for past behaviour supported trans-contextual model hypotheses across all samples. Effects of perceived autonomy support from peers and parents on leisure-time autonomous motivation were small and inconsistent, while effects on TPB variables were stronger. There was a unique effect of perceived autonomy support from PE teachers on leisure-time autonomous motivation. Findings support the model, which provides an explanation of the processes by which perceived autonomy support from different sources affects health-related physical activity motivation across these contexts.

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We tested a model of the associations between students' perceptions of their physical education teacher's controlling behaviour, perceptions of basic psychological need thwarting, anger and bullying behaviour. School students (N = 602; M age = 12.88, SD = 1.37) from 10 schools completed measures of perceived teachers' controlling behaviour and perceived thwarting of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in physical education context and self-reported bullying and anger. A well-fitting structural equation model demonstrated that students' perceptions of the negative conditional regard and intimidation exhibited by the teacher had significant indirect effect on students' feelings of anger and bullying behaviour through the perceived psychological need thwarting in physical education. Findings suggest that physical education teachers who avoid the use of negative conditional regard and intimidation in their classes have students who perceive less need thwarting and report less bullying behaviour.

In this article the relationships between three different types of intrinsic motivation and students' intention to be physically active after school graduation were examined. The participants were 400 school children aged 14-18 years. The modified version of SMS was used to measure the three different types of intrinsic motivation. The intention scale as a measurement of physical education outcome to be physically active was specially designed for this study. The data were analysed by means of structural equation modelling. The goodness of fit indexes of confirmatory factor model for three types of intrinsic motivation provided the evidence of existing different dimensions of intrinsic motivation among students in the physical education setting. The results of this study indicated that the intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation was the strongest predictor of intention to be physical active after school graduation, beyond the intrinsic motivation to accomplish.

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The present study tested the cross-cultural generalizability of the measurement and structural parameters of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) among youth in a physical activity context. Pupils from five cultural groups completed measures of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intentions for physical activity. Five weeks later, participants completed self-report measures of physical activity behavior. Confirmatory factor analyses and multisample structural equation models revealed well-fitting models within each sample with minimal variations in the measurement parameters across cultures. There were a few significant cross-cultural differences in the structural relations among the TPB constructs. Attitudes predicted intentions in all samples (β range = .300 to .550), whereas the effect of the subjective norms on intention was nonsignificant in all but the Hungarian sample (β = .243). Conversely, the effect of PBC on intentions was significant (β range = .302 to .573) in all but the Hungarian sample. Findings support the generalizability of the measures and pattern of effects for the TPB among young people in a physical activity context.

Highlights Intrinsic motivation toward physical education was the only significant motivational predictor of adolescents’ objectively measured daily physical activity. Perceived autonomy support from the physical education teacher was indirectly related to objectively measured physical activity. Psychological need satisfaction and intrinsic motivation in physical education mediated the effect of perceived autonomy support on objectively measured physical activity.