A multilevel latent growth modelling of the longitudinal changes in motivation regulations in physical education

The purpose of this study was to examine individual- and classroom- level differences in the longitudinal change in motivational regulations during physical education students’ transition from elementary (grade 6) across middle school (grades 7 to 9). a sample of 757 finnish adolescents (m = 12.71,sd = 0.23) participated in this study. participants of the study responded to questionnaires collected six times. a multilevel latent growth modelling approach was used to analyze the data. results showed that motivational regulations in physical education developed at different rates during middle school. more specifically,students’: (a) identified regulation increased across grades 6 to 9; (b) amotivation increased during middle school transition from grade 6 to 7; and (c) introjected regulation declined from grade 8 to 9. other motivational regulations remained stable across time. the changes in amotivation and introjected regulation were largely due to individual factors,whereas the changes in identified regulation were due to environmental factors. © 2014,journal of sports science and medicine.