Extracurricular school-based sports participation and the relationship with physical activity and motivation towards sports

The purposes of this study were to evaluate whether students, who participate in extracurricular school sports compared to those who do not, (1) are more autonomously or controlled motivated, or amotivated to participate in sports; (2) participate more or less in organized sports and; (3) are more or less physically active in daily life. One thousand forty-nine children (53.7% boys; M age = 11.02 years) from 30 elementary schools and 1526 adolescents (48.0% boys; M age = 15.34 years) from 32 secondary schools, completed validated questionnaires to assess physical activity and extracurricular school sports participation [1]; and motivation towards sports [2]. The concept of motivation was approached from the perspective of Self-Determination Theory [3]. Seventy-six percent of elementary school children and 28% of secondary school adolescents reported to participate in extracurricular school sports during the current school year. Most elementary school children (64.91%) not participating in community sports and 19.7% of the adolescents not participating in community sports, stated to participate in extracurricular school sports. Within the entire sample, participants were significantly more physically active than non-participants (β = 153.48). Elementary school boys engaging in extracurricular school sports but not in community sports were furthermore significantly more autonomously motivated towards sports than boys not engaging in community or extracurricular school sports (β = 0.58). Adolescents participating in extracurricular school sports reported overall higher levels of autonomous motivation than their peers (β = 0.18). If extracurricular school sports are offered at school, the vast majority of children and a small minority of adolescents participates. As participants of all ages are more physically active than their non-participating counterparts, extracurricular school sports participation can be considered to contribute to an active lifestyle. Furthermore, for a considerable amount of students, extracurricular school sport participation is positively related to autonomous motivation towards sports.