GoldLink | Directories | A-Z Search

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Youth sport specialization may foster negative attitudes toward sport and physical activity, especially if specialization results in physical injury, increased anxiety, burnout and early dropout. Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985) posits that competence, autonomy, and relatedness are three basic human needs, and the degree to which they are satisfied determines intrinsic motivation for that activity. Many sport factors are related to intrinsic motivation (Vallerand & Rousseau, 2001) such as playing for a democratic coach (versus a controlling coach), participating in recreational settings focused on skill development (versus a competitive league), and having high perceived control over one’s participation conditions (versus having the conditions of participation mandated by supervising adults; Weinberg & Gould, 2011). Therefore, program features of highly specialized sport settings (e.g., lack of perceived control over participation conditions) may reduce self-determination, lessening intrinsic motivation for that activity. Talent development within youth sport may depend on whether youth emotionally bond to an activity so they can self-regulate their own skill mastery (Coakley, 2009). Yet, to the degree that youth sport specialization is linked to greater risk of burnout, lack of perceived autonomy for participation, and dropout, youth may develop lower participation motivation of a given sport in particular or sport in general. Statement of Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how former youth athletes’ motivations for sport participation are influenced by whether they specialized in a single sport as a youth athlete. Based on research indicating specialization may weaken intrinsic motivation to participate in sport (Ewing & Seefeldt, 1996; Gould, 2010), and that when youth specialize in one sport, intrinsically-based participation motivations may be transformed into more extrinsic reasons (Fraser-Thomas & Cote, 2006), it is hypothesized that young adults who specialized in one youth sport will report lower levels of intrinsic motivation as well as higher levels of extrinsic motivation as well as amotivation compared to young adults who diversified their youth sport participation. It is also hypothesized that young adults who specialized in a single sport will report significantly lower physical activity enjoyment compared to young adults who diversified their sport participation. STATEMENT OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Participants for this project will be a sample of college students who participated in organized youth sports prior to entering high school. A targeted sample of 200 participants will be the goal, with equal approximate numbers of male and female participants included within the overall sample. Upon approval from the institutional review board, participants will be administered a survey packet that includes a series of questions based on their retrospective recall of their youth sport experience. Survey questions will include questions pertaining to general perceptions of their youth sport experience, as well as questions about their enjoyment of physical activity and their motivations for practicing their sport as a youth. Survey packets will include an 18-item measure assessing current enjoyment of physical activity (The Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale, PACES, Kendzierski & DeCarlo, 1991). The PACES is an 18-item scale that employs bipolar adjectives in a 7-point semantic differential format. For example, participants are asked to respond to how they feel about physical activity using bipolar adjectives such as “I enjoy it – I hate it”; “It’s very invigorating – it’s not at all invigorating”; and “it’s very pleasant – it’s very unpleasant”. Evidence for validity and reliability of the scale has been demonstrated (Kendzierski & DeCarlo, 1991). Finally, packets will include a measure of sport motivation (The Sport Motivation Scale-28, SMS-28, Pelletier et al., 1995). This scale assesses people's motivation for engaging in sports activities. It assesses 7 types of motivation: intrinsic motivation toward knowledge, accomplishment and stimulation, as well as external, introjected and identified regulations, and amotivation. It contains 28 items (4 items for each of the 7 sub-scales) assessed on a 7-point scale. Pelletier et al. (1995) reported adequate internal consistency, with alpha scores on six of the seven subscales ranging from .74 to .80, with the internal consistency of the identification subscale slightly lower (.63). ANTICIPATED RISKS AND BENEFITS There are no anticipated risks since this study involves survey research, risks to participants are deemed minimal in nature. Possible benefits of this study include greater insight into possible long-term impacts of youth sport specialization have on later enjoyment or, participation, and motivations in sport and general physical activity. SUBJECT SELECTION A stratified random sample of 200 college students who participated in organized youth sport will be surveyed for this project, with equal numbers (n=100) coming from males and females. CONFIDENTIALITY Survey packets will be number-coded and will not include participant names, thus will be anonymous. In addition, surveys will be directly administered by Dr. Russell and his associate. PRIMARY SUPPORTING DOCUMENT Click for Word Document Extension Request on 11-18-2012 I need several more weeks for data collection. Final Report on 05-17-2013 The purpose of this study was to examine how former youth athletes’ sport motivation was related to whether they specialized in one sport. Two-hundred undergraduates (M age=19.09, SD=1.26) were surveyed on retrospective perceptions of their youth sport experience. Surveys included questions regarding reasons for youth sport participation, current sport and exercise participation, physical activity enjoyment (Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale, Kendzierski & DeCarlo, 1991) and youth sport motivations (Sport Motivation Scale, Pelletier et al., 1995). “Specializers” participated in youth sport more than “non-specializers” to stay in shape (p =.03), learn skills (p=.002), and feel competent about their physical abilities (p=.001). Specializers were also less likely to participate in sport as young adults (p<.05). Finally, specializers were significantly higher on IM-know (p=.03) and EM-introjected regulation (p=.04) than non-specializers. Results indicate the need to examine specific motivational elements of youth sport climates to determine whether early sport specialization has negative outcomes.