A study of exercise motivation in middle school students: exploring the roles of sports participation, physical education, health, and human movement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v69.116268Keywords:
Exercise Motivation, Sports Participation, Physical Education, Perceived Health Status, Human Movement AwarenessAbstract
Purpose: This study aims to explore the factors influencing exercise motivation in middle school students, specifically focusing on the roles of sports participation, physical education (PE) engagement, perceived health status, and human movement awareness. By examining these variables, the research seeks to understand how they contribute to various motivational dimensions, including amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation.
Method: A quantitative, correlational research design was employed, with data collected from 315 middle school students involved in sports education programs. Participants completed a structured questionnaire distributed face-to-face, assessing their sports participation, engagement in PE, perceived health status, human movement awareness, and exercise motivation. The data were analyzed using SmartPLS 4, a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) tool.
Findings: The results revealed significant positive relationships between all four independent variables (sports participation, PE engagement, perceived health status, and human movement awareness) and exercise motivation. Specifically, sports participation and PE engagement were found to reduce amotivation and enhance both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Perceived health status and movement awareness were also strong predictors of motivation, contributing to higher levels of self-determined motivation and engagement in physical activity.
Originality/Implications: This study contributes to the understanding of exercise motivation in adolescents, offering practical insights for educators and policymakers. The findings emphasize the importance of fostering inclusive sports programs and PE curricula that promote intrinsic motivation and long-term physical activity habits among middle school students.
References
Abbasi, N. (2025). Exploring the Relationship Between Physical Activity and Perceived Health Among Undergraduate College Students.
Aliriad, H., Adi, S., Manullang, J. G., Endrawan, I. B., & Satria, M. H. (2024). Improvement of motor skills and motivation to learn physical education through the use of traditional games. Physical Edu-cation Theory and Methodology, 24(1), 32-40
Almeida, L., Dias, T., Corte-Real, N., Menezes, I., & Fonseca, A. (2023). Positive youth development through sport and physical education: a systematic review of empirical research conducted with grade 5 to 12 children and youth. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2023.2230208
Buchmann, M., Jordan, S., Loer, A.-K. M., Finger, J. D., & Domanska, O. M. (2023). Motivational readiness for physical activity and health literacy: results of a cross-sectional survey of the adult popula-tion in Germany. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 331. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15219-4
Cachón‑Zagalaz, J., Carrasco‑Venturelli, H., Sánchez‑Zafra, M., & Zagalaz‑Sánchez, M. L. (2023). Motiva-tion toward physical activity and healthy habits of adolescents: A systematic review. Children, 10(4), Article 659. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10040659
Dishman, E. (2004). Inventing wellness systems for aging in place. Computer, 37(5), 34–41. https://doi.org/10.1109/MC.2004.1297237
Espinoza, S. M., Brown, C., Gower, A. L., Eisenberg, M. E., McPherson, L. E., & Rider, G. N. (2023). Sport and physical activity among transgender, gender diverse, and questioning adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 72(2), 303–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.09.020
Garcia, M. B. (2024). Watching exercise and fitness videos on TikTok for physical education: Motiva-tion, engagement, and message sensation value. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 43(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1123/jtpe.2023-0063
Gerber, M., Cheval, B., Cody, R., Colledge, F., Hohberg, V., Klimentidis, Y. C., Lang, C., Looser, V. N., Ludyga, S., & Stults-Kolehmainen, M. (2025). Psycho-physiological foundations of human physical activ-ity behavior and motivation: Theories, systems, mechanisms, evolution, and genetics. Physio-logical Reviews. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00039.2023
Guo, Q., Samsudin, S., Yang, X., Gao, J., Ramlan, M. A., Abdullah, B., & Farizan, N. H. (2023). Relationship between perceived teacher support and student engagement in physical education: A systemat-ic review. Sustainability, 15(7), 6039. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15076039
Han, Y., Qin, G., Han, S., Ke, Y., Meng, S., Tong, W., Guo, Q., Li, Y., Ye, Y., & Shi, W. (2023). Effect of mobile phone addiction on physical exercise in university students: Moderating effect of peer relation-ships. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 2685. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032685
Ivanov, V., & Marandykina, O. (2023). Motion state as an important factor in health promotion and preservation of students. Физическая культура. Спорт. Туризм. Двигательная рекреация, 8(1), 113–119. https://doi.org/10.34685/1680-9638.2023.1.113-119
Kena, G., Musu-Gillette, L., Robinson, J., Wang, X., Rathbun, A., Zhang, J., Wilkinson-Flicker, S., Barmer, A., & Velez, E. D. V. (2015). The condition of education 2015 (NCES 2015-144). National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2015144
Li, N., Yang, Y., Zhao, X., & Li, Y. (2023). The relationship between achievement motivation and college students’ general self-efficacy: A moderated mediation model. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1031912. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1031912
Lin, M., Olsen, S., Simmons, D. N., Miller, M., & Tominey, S. L. (2023). “Not try to save them or ask them to breathe through their oppression”: Educator perceptions and the need for a human-centered, liberatory approach to social and emotional learning. Frontiers in Education, 7, Article 1044730. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.1044730
Liu, T., Li, D., Yang, H., Chi, X., & Yan, J. (2023). Associations of sport participation with subjective well‑being: A study consisting of a sample of Chinese school‑attending students. Frontiers in Public Health, 11, Article 1199782. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1199782
Maldari, M. M., Garcia, J. M., & Rice, D. J. (2023). The impact of health education on physical activity correlates in college students. Journal of American College Health, 71(1), 111–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2021.1876210
O’Connor, J., Alfrey, L., & Penney, D. (2024). Rethinking the classification of games and sports in physi-cal education: A response to changes in sport and participation. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 29(3), 315–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2023.2194975
Oktadinata, A., Prabowo, B., Daya, W., Diana, F., Nugraha, U., Melinda, M., & Ockta, Y. (2024). Motivation and physical activity: Correlation study on extracurricular sports of high school students. Jour-nal of Education, Teaching and Learning, 9(1), 35–39. https://doi.org/10.26737/jetl.v9n1.2762
Queiroz, A. C., Fauville, G., Abeles, A. T., Levett, A., & Bailenson, J. N. (2023). The efficacy of virtual reali-ty in climate change education increases with amount of body movement and message specific-ity. Sustainability, 15(7), Article 5814. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075814
Redublado, H., Velez, L., Serano, A., & Kilag, O. (2024). Enhancing physical activity and movement skills in youth: A systematic review of school-based interventions. International Multidisciplinary Journal of Research for Innovation, Sustainability, and Excellence (IMJRISE), 1(3), 73–78.
Rickel, K., Zink, G., & Fowler, B. (2025). Changing language and university students' exercise motiva-tions. Journal of Kinesiology & Wellness, 14(1), 7–14.
Romero‑Parra, N., Solera‑Alfonso, A., Bores‑García, D., & Delfa‑De‑La‑Morena, J. M. (2023). Sex and ed-ucational level differences in physical activity and motivations to exercise among Spanish chil-dren and adolescents. European Journal of Pediatrics, 182(2), 533–542. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-022-04672-3
Rosenkranz, R. R., Ridley, K., Guagliano, J. M., & Rosenkranz, S. K. (2023). Physical activity capability, opportunity, motivation and behavior in youth settings: Theoretical framework to guide physi-cal activity leader interventions. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 16(1), 529–553. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2022.2058183
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2024). Self‑determination theory. In T. L. Spence (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Quali-ty of Life and Well‑Being Research (pp. 6229–6235). Springer.
Schiff, N. T., & Supriady, A. (2023). Sports education model (SEM) on students’ motivation and physical activity in classroom: A literature review. Jurnal SPORTIF: Jurnal Penelitian Pembelajaran, 9(1), 40–58. https://doi.org/10.29407/js_unpgri.v9i1.19067
Sheng, J., Ariffin, I. A. B., & Tham, J. (2025). The influence of exercise self‑efficacy and gender on the relationship between exercise motivation and physical activity in college students. Scientific Reports, 15(1), Article 11888. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95704-5
Somarathna, R., Elvitigala, D. S., Yan, Y., Quigley, A. J., & Mohammadi, G. (2023). Exploring user engage-ment in immersive virtual reality games through multimodal body movements. In G. Bruder, T. Peck, & S. Serafin (Eds.), VRST 2023 – 29th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (Article 3). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3611659.3615687
Sözmen, E. Y., Karaca, O., & Batı, A. H. (2023). The effectiveness of interactive training and microlearn-ing approaches on motivation and independent learning of medical students during the COVID‑19 pandemic. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 60(1), 70–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2022.2157374
Standage, M., Duda, J. L., & Ntoumanis, N. (2005). A test of self‑determination theory in school physical education. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75(3), 411–433. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905X25101
Stults‑Kolehmainen, M. A., Gilson, T. A., SantaBarbara, N., McKee, P. C., Sinha, R., Bartholomew, J. B., Boullosa, D., Budnick, C. J., Bueno, F. A., & Haughton, A. (2023). Qualitative and quantitative evi-dence of motivation states for physical activity, exercise and being sedentary from university student focus groups. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 5, Article 1033619. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1033619
Suyato, S., Setyawan, H., Sukarti, S. E. E., Shidiq, A. A. P., Darmawan, A., HB, G., Zulbahri, Z., Eken, Ö., Pav-lovic, R., & Latino, F. (2024). The integration of social values in physical education and sport to develop teenage students’ character: A systematic review. Retos, 58, 960–968.
Tannoubi, A., Quansah, F., Hagan, J. E., Jr., Srem‑Sai, M., Bonsaksen, T., Chalghaf, N., Boussayala, G., Azaiez, C., Snani, H., & Azaiez, F. (2023). Adaptation and validation of the Arabic version of the University Student Engagement Inventory (A‑USEI) among sport and physical education stu-dents. Psych, 5(2), 320–335. https://doi.org/10.3390/psych5020022
Woods, C. B., Ng, K. W., Britton, U., McClelland, J. F., O’Keeffe, B., Sheikhi, A., McFlynn, P., Murphy, M. H., Goss, H., & Behan, S. (2023). Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity Study 2022. Physical Activity for Health Research Centre, Department of Physical Education and Sport Sci-ences, University of Limerick and Sport Ireland. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102955
Zhang, Y., Yan, J., Jin, X., Yang, H., Zhang, Y., Ma, H., & Ma, R. (2023). Sports participation and academic performance in primary school: A cross‑sectional study in Chinese children. International Jour-nal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), Article 3678. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043678
Zhou, F., Wang, W., Nie, Y., Shao, C., Ma, W., Qiu, W., Qu, G., Gao, J., & Liu, C. (2025). The study of the as-sociation between exercise motivation and cardiorespiratory fitness in young students: A sys-tematic review and meta‑analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, Article 1566952. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1566952
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Yan Zhang, Phichayavee Panurushthanon
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine the right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine.
- Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (eg, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Is allowed and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as to a subpoena more Early and more of published work (See The Effect of Open Access) (in English).
This journal provides immediate open access to its content (BOAI, http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess) on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The authors may download the papers from the journal website, or will be provided with the PDF version of the article via e-mail.
