The Importance of Motor Coordination for Children’s Motivational Orientations in Sport

Abstract

According to competence motivation theory, children who are successful at movement will be intrinsically motivated in the motor domain (Harter, 1978, 1981a). By contrast, intrinsic motivation of children who repeatedly fail at movement is likely to diminish. The present study aimed to examine motivational orientations of children (N = 130) who differed in motor ability. Children (age 8-12) were categorized as coordinated (n = 62) or poorly coordinated (n = 68) according to scores on a neuromuscular development battery (McCarron, 1982). The poorly coordinated group was less motivated by challenge than well-coordinated participants as measured on the Motivational Orientation in Sport Scale (Weiss, Bredemeier, & Shewchuk, 1985a). Girls were less intrinsically motivated toward challenge than boys. There was little support that movement competence and motivational orientation are linked.