MOTIVATIONAL CLIMATE AND ENJOYMENT IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN ITALIAN HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS: DIFFERENCES BY GENDER

The aim of the study is to examine the differences in high school adolescents in motivational climate and enjoyment according to gender and if motivational climate influences enjoyment in physical activity. 207 high school adolescents (males: n= 118; females: n= 89) were asked to complete enjoyment and motivational climate self-reported questionnaires during physical education lessons. Anova one-way was performed to examine the effect of gender on motivational climate and on enjoyment. A multiple regression analisys was also performed to examine if there were any gender differences in the prediction of enjoyment in physical activity. Significant differences were found in favor of females in task-involving climate (p<0.05). The regression analysis showed that task-involving climate predicted a positive and significant positive enjoyment in physical activity only in boys, not in females. According to several research, the result of this study showed that males were more perceived an ego-involving climate and positive enjoyment than females, while females were more likely to perceive a task-involving climate than boys. Furthermore, task-involviing climate predict positive enjoyment in physical activity only in boys. It's necessary to adopt task involving teaching methods to promote adolescent's physical activity enjoyment through secondary school years.