Abstract

The object of our work was to study the motives that Valencia teenagers at school considered important for practicing sport, identifying the dimensions of the motives of practice. At the same time we analyzed if the motives for sports practice was different according to age and gender. The sample was made up of 1203 students between 11 and 18 years, representatives of the teenage word in the community of Valencia. The students filled out the Inventory of Health in Students translated in Spanish (Wold, 1995; Balaguer, 1999). The results obtained went in the same direction as previous investigations (see Balaguer and Atienza, 1994) and showed that the most important motives for young people to participate in sport are: improve my health, amuse myself, be in good shape and make new friends. The least important are: to win, be a sporting star and please my parents. The motives of sports practice are structured in three stated dimensions: motives of social approval and demonstration of capacity, motives of health and motives of affiliation. The analysis of the differences in age and gender show that the boys inform in a higher degree than girls in every age group, that the motives of social approval and the demonstration of capacity are very important for sports practice. Additionally with the increase in age these motives are considered less important for teenagers of both sexes. Health motives are more important for 17-years-old girls that for boys of the same age. Finally, affiliation motives are considered more important for 13-years-old boys than girls of the same age group