Changes in students´ physical activity and perceived autonomy from 7th grade to 9th grade

The purpose of this study was to analyze changes in students´ physical activity (PA) and perceived autonomy in physical education (PE) from 7th grade to 9th grade. In addition, correlations between perceived autonomy and PA were analyzed in this study. A sample of 639 students (girls = 296, boys = 343) from Central Finland were followed up across the time period of 2007–2009. The number of eight secondary schools and 32 PE groups involved in this study.

The instruments involved in this study have been used regularly and shown to be valid and reliable in both international studies and previous Finnish PA and PE research. Students´ self-reported physical activity was measured with the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Research Protocol (WHO 2004; 2008). Perceived autonomy in PE was measured with Soini`s (2006) motivational climate scales. Analysis of the longitudinal data was accomplished with repeated measures of variance (ANOVA). In the analysis, time and gender were determined as independent variables. PA and perceived autonomy in PE were determined as dependent variables. Significant differences between different measure points were analyzed with LSD-tests.

Results showed that correlations between PA and perceived autonomy in PE were generally weak. The strongest correlations were found in the measure point of 9th grade. Students´ PA decreased from 7. grade to 9. grade. In contrast, perceived autonomy in PE increased from 7. grade to 9. grade.

These findings suggest that further research is required to understand the connections of students’ social-cognitive motivational factors and PA in physical education and leisure time. Such interventions could give better understanding of the development of students´ PA patterns and their motivational determinants.