Browsing by Author "Mansikkaviita, Heli"

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to analyse what kind of motivation types there will be composed from 9 to 12 years old Finnish figure skaters who answered to Student Athletes' Motivation toward Sports and Academics Questionnaire (SAMSAQ). Joy L. Gaston has developed the Questionnaire, but it has been used also by Michael P. Shuman (2009), J. Nathan Althouse (2007) and Guidotti, Minganti, Cortis, Piacentini, Tessitore, & Capra-nice, (2013). Because of there has been so much conversation in the media for the last couple of years about how young athlete's future looks like, it was really important for me to study this subject as a becoming teacher. In this study I will analyse quantitatively what are the motivation types of young figure skaters and how they are related to school grades. The purpose is also to evaluate if the SAMSAQ I used would give the same kind of motivation types than Gaston got in his study. In the previous studies results have shown that young athletes who are trying to get to the top of the sport elite are not academically motivated. Methods. Figure skaters all around Finland were asked to answer the questionnaire in February and March in 2013. In the end of March 2013 there were 152 skaters who were between 9 and 12 years and were willing to participate in to my study. The skaters were form all around from Finland, and eventually from 30 different Finnish figure skating clubs. The questionnaire was answered in Internet in a service called "E-lomake". Analysing methods were explorative factor analysis and Pearson's correlation. Results and Conclusions. There were eventually found three different motivation types: Elite sport practicing motivation, academic and sport practicing motivation, and academic motivation. The mean result of the correlation study was that if the skater was motivated to both study and practice she or he would have better future plans and opportunities after she or he has end hers or his skating career. However the best grades at school did go to those who were purely academically motivated. The results shows that sport clubs should concentrate to train the child for sport and to support child's academic motivation.