Self-Determination and Goal Orientation in Track and Field: This study investigated gender, age group and locality differences in adolescent athletes' self-determination motivation and goal orientations in track and field. It also examined the relationship between the self-determination theory and achievement goal theory. A total of 632 (349 boys, 283 girls) adolescent athletes (aged 13-18 years) completed the Sports Motivation Scale and Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire. Results indicated significant differences between gender on intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amotivation (t(630) = 4.10, p < 0.05) and ego orientation (t(630) = 2.48, p < 0.05). Male students reported higher intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amotivation and ego orientation. A significant difference was found between age groups on task orientation (t(630) = 1.94, p < 0.05) and locality on ego orientation (t(630) = 1.94, p < 0.05). Older athletes showed significantly higher task orientation. Rural athletes had higher ego orientation whereas urban athletes have higher intrinsic motivation. Task orientation was related to intrinsic motivation (r = 0.55, p < 0.01), extrinsic motivation (r = 0.55, p < 0.01), but weakly related to amotivation (r = 0.10, p < 0.01). Ego orientation was related to intrinsic motivation (r = 0.30, p < 0.01), extrinsic motivation (r = 0.36, p < 0.01) and amotivaion (r = 0.36, p < 0.01). Task orientation was related to ego orientation (r = 0.29, p < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation accounted for 30.5% of the variances in task orientation.

The 18-item Sport Motivation Scale (SMS-II) is one of the most-utilised scales measuring athletes’ motivation and its psychometric properties. However, we found no Malay version used to examine the Malaysian multi-ethnic population. Thus, the study aimed to translate and validate the SMS-II into the Malay version using confirmatory factor analysis. A total of 436 (16.44 ± 1.22) state athletes were asked to complete the SMS-II Malay version, which utilised the forward–backwards translation method. The results showed an acceptable fit with the data (CFI = 0.906, SRMR = 0.064; RMSEA = 0.056) and internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha value that exceeded 0.50, which supported its usage for the assessment of motivation among the multi-ethnic Malaysian athletes. The Cronbach’s alpha values of all the factors were satisfactory, except for introjected regulation. Thus, further studies are needed to improve the reliability of such factors. Nonetheless, the Malay version of SMS-II was found to be valid and reliable for assessing the level of motivation of the multi-ethnic Malaysian athletes.

(1) Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between expectancy-value components and attitudes toward sportspersonship among Malaysian adolescent field hockey players. This study also examined the effect of expectancy beliefs, task values, and sportspersonship attitude on the motivation of adolescent field hockey players by gender and age group. (2) Methods: The Malay versioned Expectancy Value Model Questionnaire and the Malay versioned Multidimensional Sportspersonship Orientations Scale were administered on 730 respondents (µ = 15.46 ± 1.83 years). (3) Results: The expectancy values and attainment value (r = 0.894), utility value and attainment value (r = 0.833) were highly correlated. There was no significant gender difference in expectancy, task values, and sportspersonship attitude dimensions. The main effect of age group was significant on task values: F (2724) = 4.19; p = 0.01. The difference was indicated between age groups of 15–16 years and 12–14 years (p = 0.02, d = 0.014) under task values variable. (4) Conclusions: There is no significant relationships between sportspersonship attitude (MSOS-M) and of expectancy beliefs and task values (EVMQ-M). To conclude, female and younger players demonstrate lower expectancy beliefs, task values, and sportspersonship attitudes than male and older field hockey players.

This study examined the trainee teachers’ situational motivation and motivational climate towards Physical Education lessons in primary schools during COVID-19 pandemic. The participants were 160 trainee teachers comprising of 115 males and 45 female aged 21 to 26 years old (1.10±0.30) from two Institute of Teacher Education Campuses in Sarawak, Malaysia. The participants were administrated the Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS: Guay, Vallerand & Blanchard, 2000) and Teacher Initiated Motivational Climate in Physical Education Questionnaire (TIMCPEQ; Papaioannou, 1998). Descriptive analysis, independent-samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA and correlation were utilized. Independent-samples t-test indicated that there were no significant differences for all variables in SIMS and TIMCPEQ on gender and age groups. The one-way ANOVA was used to compare the effect on teaching methods in SIMS and TIMCPEQ. There was a significant difference in teacher-initiated mastery orientation for the three teaching methods, F(2,157)=3.31, p=0.04. Post-hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test revealed that the mean score for the online learning (3.87±0.78) was significantly different than the mixed methods (4.22±0.55). However, the face-to-face learning method (3.96±0.62) did not significantly differ from the online learning and mixed methods. Furthermore, two-way ANOVA was used to examine the effect of gender and age groups in SIMS and TIMCPEQ which revealed no significant main effect of gender and age groups. Additionally, there was no statistically significant interaction between gender × age groups for all variables in SIMS and TIMCPEQ. The findings revealed statistically significant positive relationship between the variables in SIMS and TIMCPEQ ranging from very weak (0.24) to very strong (0.90). The findings revealed the necessity for positive motivational climate through adaptive educational resources, alternative teaching approaches and methods that would support and motivate the trainee teachers, educators and students in the teaching and learning of PE during this challenging time.