抄録
The purpose of this study was to examine developmental changes of identification in sports and exercise from childhood to adulthood. Participants were 204 elementary school students, 310 junior high school students, and 252 university students. A chi-squared test revealed significant differences among development stages in the occurrence of identification and the ratios between different models. In particular, the occurrence of identification decreased by developmental stage. Furthermore, the results indicated that boys at elementary and junior high school stage often chose a “famous athlete” as their identification model, whereas girls at all developmental stages mainly chose a ‘friend,” “senior student,” or “teacher/coach” as their identification model. Cluster analysis was also conducted to determine the pattern of identification. This analysis revealed four patterns of identification: “Low Identification (LI)”, “High Identification (HI)”, “Positive Evaluation (PE)”, and “Emotional Bond (EB).” Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to establish the relation between identification pattern (LI, HI, PE, EB or Non-Identification (NI) group) and intrinsic motivation to participate in exercise and sports by developmental stage. ANOVA revealed that the scores of intrinsic motivation for the HI, PE, and EB groups were significantly higher than those for the NI group in all developmental stages. Moreover, the scores of intrinsic motivation for the HI group were significantly different from those for the other groups in elementary and junior high school students. Hence, the results of this study suggest that intrinsic motivation to participate in exercise and sports is in part related to an individual's identification in all developmental stages.
