Does significantly increasing girls’ step counts effect their motivation in organized youth sports?

Participation in organized youth sports (OYS) has been recommended as an opportunity to increase young peoples’ physical activity (PA). Girls, however, spend a substantial proportion of time during OYS inactive. Research has shown that coaches are aware of the opportunity to increase PA during OYS for girls, yet are cautious about doing so because of the belief that it could result in reduced motivation and dropout. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate between-group differences in girls’ motivation while participating in a 5-day basketball program designed to increase PA during training sessions. METHODS: The effect of the basketball program was tested using a two-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial. Participants were 76 girls, aged 9 to 12 yr (mean 10.5±1.0), recruited from Greater Western Sydney, Australia. The intervention group received coaching from participants who attended two coach education sessions versus a no treatment control group. Girls wore one sealed pedometer, placed on the right hip during two 45-min training sessions that took place each day of the basketball program. Girls also completed a questionnaire that included items from the Situational Motivation Scale at baseline (Day 1) and follow-up (Day 5). Linear mixed models were used to analyze both outcomes. RESULTS: There were no significant between-group differences at baseline for steps/min or motivation scores. Substantial increases in mean steps/min from baseline to follow-up were found in the intervention group (29.8±14.8) and little change was found in the control group (3.3±18.2). Mean motivation scores showed relatively little change at follow-up (intervention -0.7±11.5; control 2.1±13.1). Between-groups, steps/min were significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control group (MD = 26.5, SE = 4.05, p0.05). CONCLUSION: Despite significantly increasing girls’ step counts in the intervention group, no significant between-group difference in girls’ motivation scores was found. Coaches can have greater confidence that increasing PA during training will not have a detrimental effect on girls’ motivation towards OYS.