STRUCTURE OF SPORT MOTIVATION AMONG FORMERLY ACTIVE ATHLETES

Abstract

The aim of our study was to identify the structure of sportmotivation among formerly active athletes who withdrew fromcompetitive sports although they were still in the age consideredadequate for a career in sport. The sample consisted of 180former athletes (average age = 23.8 years) and was balancedin terms of gender and sport type (collective vs. individual).Participants assessed the importance of individual motivesfor their former sport careers on a modified version of theParticipation Motivation Questionnaire (PMQ: Gill, Gross, &Huddleston, 1983). Exploratory factor analysis grouped motivesin three well-differentiated clusters: motives of achievement,social motives and combined physical and mental releasemotives. Gender proved to be significantly related to motivation;females rated physical and mental release motives higher, whilemales considered socially-related motives to be more important.Further, former athletes who participated in internationalcompetitions were overall more motivated than the ex-athleteswho participated only in national competitions. Type of sportdid not show to be a significant factor related to motivation. Wediscuss our findings in the context of two dominant motivationtheories in sport psychology: Achievement goal theory and Selfdeterminationtheory. Finally, we propose directions for furtherresarch and suggest practical use of our findings.