Youth Athletes' Sport Motivation and Physical Activity Enjoyment across Specialization Status
Year: 2017

IntroductionYouth sports provide numerous benefits for children and adolescents (Pate, Trost, Levin, Dowda, 2000) In addition to developing sport skills, youth sport participation can foster leadership, communication skills, moral development, and teamwork (Baron, 2007; Weiss, 2004) and may benefit later health (Perkins, Jacobs, Barber,  2004; Telama, Yang, Hirvensalo, Raitakari, 2006) Youth sport participation has increased in recent decades (Telama et al. 2006) however more youth are now limiting participation to one sport in order to maximize future successes, and many parents now advocate an early start to their child's sport experience (Carson, Landers, Tjeerdsma Blankenship, 2010; Strachan, Cote, Deakin, 2009) Referred to as sport specialization, this practice involves exclusive and exhaustive commitment to one sport, in which youth train and compete year round, often with high expectations (Gould Carson, 2004; Gould, Carson, Fifer, Lauer, Benham, 2009; Wiersma, 2000).There are wide ranging concerns regarding single sport specialization including greater risk for burnout (Gould 2010; Gould, Tuffey, Udry, Loehr, 1996; Strachan et al. 2009) overuse injuries (Kaleth Mikesky, 2010) competitive stress (Baker, 2003; Fraser Thomas Cote 2006; Gould 2010) social isolation (Coakley, 2010) reduced motor skill development (Branta, 2010) and dropout (Butcher, Lindner, Johns, 2002; Fraser Thomas, Cote, Deakin, 2005; Wall Cote, 2007) Thus, a concern is that youth are beginning competitive sport at too young an age and engaging in year round, intense single sport programs before it is in their best interest to do so. Consequently, experts (e.g. American Academy of Pediatrics, 2000) discourage single sport specialization before adolescence, yet it is still common for many youth to do just that (Russell Limle, 2013).Motivation is a variable that not only influences performance but also positive experiences in youth sport. Self Determination Theory (SDT; Deci Ryan, 1985a) notes that sport motivation is multifaceted, with athletes often having multiple participation motives. External factors such as rewards or significant others' approval may motivate athletes; however, they may also be internally motivated by personal interest and a desire to master skills (Ryan Deci, 2007) Also provided by SDT is a context for understanding how extrinsic and intrinsic motivations can initiate and sustain participation as well as subsequent benefits (Standage Ryan, 2012) Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity for itself and for personal satisfaction from the activity, such as when a young soccer player finds it interesting to learn new moves when dribbling a ball. Extrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity not because it is enjoyable, but because it leads to a separate outcome that is either tangible (e.g. a trophy) or psychological (e.g. parental praise).A basis for SDT is that social influences regulate the extent to which one's motivation is self determined through fulfillment of three needs: competence, relatedness, and autonomy (Ryan Deci, 2000) Competence refers to perceptions of effectiveness in one's environment and relatedness is a sense of affiliation through connections with significant others. Autonomy refers to one's feelings of choice; when a person is autonomous, their behavior stems from their own free will (Deci Ryan, 2002) Thus, when individuals experience support and satisfaction for autonomy, competence, and relatedness within an activity, they are more likely to internalize and take responsibility for behaviors. Self determination is thought of as a continuum of relative autonomy, and higher autonomy is associated with behaviors which are more internalized (Deci Ryan, 1985 a).At one end of this continuum, the least self determined type of motivation is amotivation, which is non regulated and lacks behavioral intention (Deci Ryan, 2002)