Development of a questionnaire based on self-determination theory for children engaging in extracurricular sports

Abstract

The article describes the development of aquestionnaire based on self-determination theory for 9- to 13-year-old children engaging in extracurricular sports. To our knowledge there are no German-language instruments that can be used to record the promotion of the three psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness, the degree of satisfaction and the resulting self-determined motivation. Therefore, the aim of this research is the development of aefficient, German-language questionnaire measuring the aforementioned constructs. The result is aquestionnaire of 30items including two need-support scales, three need-satisfaction scales and four scales regarding the motivational orientation. The scales extracted by factor analysis show satisfying internal consistencies. Preliminary construct validation is reported concerning individual vs. team sports for the need-support and need-satisfaction scales as well as proof of the simplex structure concerning motivational orientation.