Title: Exploring the role of motivation on the development of sport involvement

Authors: Konstantinos Alexandris

Addresses: Department of PE and Sport Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 57001, Greece

Abstract: The present study aimed to investigate the influence of motivation on the development of sport involvement in the context of recreational tennis. Two hundred recreational tennis players (N = 200), who were members of a tennis club in Greece, participated in the study. The multi-dimensional model of motivation [extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and amotivation (Pelletier et al., 1995)] and the self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 1985) were used for the measurement and conceptualisation of motivation, while the three-dimensional model of involvement [attraction, centrality and self-expression (Kyle et al., 2004)] was used for the measurement of involvement. The results of the study indicated: (a) the scores in the sport involvement scale were increased with the frequency of participation; (b) the intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions of motivation made significant contributions to the prediction of the attraction and centrality dimensions of involvement; (c) amotivation significantly predicted the attraction dimension. The theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed.

Keywords: sport involvement; motivation; self-determination theory; Greece; recreational tennis; multi-dimensional modelling; participation frequency; amotivation; sports.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2012.051252

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2012 Vol.12 No.1/2, pp.57 - 72

Received: 24 Sep 2011
Accepted: 03 Apr 2012
Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

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