Which school community agents influence adolescents’ motivational outcomes and physical activity? Are more autonomy-supportive relationships necessarily better?

Abstract

The first aim of this work was to examine the independent influence of students’ perceived autonomy support for leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), from different school community agents, on motivational outcomes in a LTPA context and objective PA levels. Using both a variable-and person-centered approach, the second aim was to examine how different combinations of autonomy-support were associated with students’ motivational outcomes in a LTPA context and PA levels. A sample of 178 secondary students (M = 13.26 ± 0.64) participated in the study. Autonomy support for LTPA from the PE teacher, mother, father, and peers were the only agents that significantly and positively predicted motivational outcomes in a LTPA context and PA levels. While the two-and three-way interactions of some of these four significant sources significantly increased the explained variance of some motivational outcomes, the plots revealed that the lowest values of motivational outcomes were associated with low values of perceived autonomy support. A cluster analysis revealed five profiles. The “high autonomy support” group reported the most optimal outcomes, whereas the “low autonomy support” group showed the opposite pattern. However, mixed autonomy support profiles did not differ in any of the outcomes. The adoption of a whole-of-school approach seems decisive to empower adolescents to be active in and out of school.