title: Relations of perceived physical self-efficacy and motivational responses toward physical activity by urban high school students.
abstract: To be effective in promoting physical activity among urban, minority adolescents, the factors and psychological processes that motivate them to engage in and maintain a physically active lifestyle should be examined. The relation of physical self-efficacy and motivational responses toward physical activity in 46 urban minority adolescents was explored. As hypothesized, there were significant positive relationships among Percieved Physical Ability, Physical Self-presentation Confidence, Effort, and Enjoyment (coefficients ranged from .29 to .80), suggesting that participants who had higher perceived physical ability were likely to report higher perceptions of self-presentation, more enjoyment of physical activity, and harder work in physical activity. These results indicate specific relationships among Effort, Enjoyment, Perceived Physical Ability, and Physical Self-presentation Confidence in this sample. Physical self-efficacy appears to be a stronger predictor of motivational responses in physical activity. Practical implications for physical educators include incorporating strategies known to develop self-efficacy, such as mastery experiences involving successive trials of increasing difficulty, self-observation, external feedback, peer modeling, and verbal persuasion.
authors.affiliation: Rm 215, Elma Neal Roane Fieldhouse, Department of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA. pwright2@memphis.edu
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001076:Aptitude; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012649:Self Concept; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014505:Urban Population