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health psychology report · volume 8(4),
review article
Health professionals have increasing concern about physi-
cal health and wellbeing, as life globally becomes more
demanding and stressful, yet people are less active, due
to mechanization and automation of work and leisure.
Increasing the amount of physical activity (PA) people
do is now recognized as aglobal health priority, but PA
continues to decline in many countries. Research on mo-
tives for participating in PA shows they have arole in PA
promotion. We review theory and research on motives for
participation in PA. Then, we describe development and
validation of the Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation
Scale (PALMS), a40-item measure that includes eight mo-
tives. We report on the international validation of PALMS,
showing its robustness to variations in language and cul-
ture. We describe the development of a youth version,
PALMS-Y, and abroader version that adds motives related
to extreme sports. Next, we discuss PALMS research that
has examined dierences in primary motives based on
gender, age, and type of PA, as well as factorial structure
invariance. We then consider studies investigating the
influence of psychological variables on the relationship
between motives for participation in PA and the amount
of PA individuals undertake, including self-eicacy, mind-
fulness, and passion. To aid in the consistent presentation
of PA participation motives, we describe a form of moti-
vational profiling for use in research and practice. Finally,
we propose ways that motives for participation in PA can
be used in interventions to increase PA participation, by
matching individuals’ primary motives to the type of PA
associated with those motives in large PA samples, or us-
ing techniques, such as imagery, to enhance key motives.
This should achieve the aim of enhancing health and psy-
chological wellbeing around the world.
key words
motives; physical activity; health; psychometric measure
Tony Morris id
1 · A,B,C,D,E,F
Dev Roychowdhury id
2 · A,B,C,D,E,F
Physical activity for health and wellbeing:
the role of motives for participation
– 1: Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia · 2: DR Academy, Melbourne,
Australia
’ – A: Study design · B: Data collection · C: Statistical analysis · D: Data interpretation ·
E: Manuscript preparation · F: Literature search · G: Funds collection
– Prof. Tony Morris, Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, 300 een Str.,
Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia, e-mail: Tony.Morris@vu.edu.au
– Morris, T., &Roychowdhury, D. (2020). Physical activity for health and wellbeing: the role
of motives for participation. Health Psychology Report, 8(4), 391–407. hps://doi.org/10.5114/hpr.2020.100111
15.07.2020 · 18.08.2020 · 24.09.2020 · 20.10.2020
Tony Morris,
Dev
Roychowdhury
392
Background
ere is growing concern about the physical health
and psychological wellbeing of adults and children in
many countries around the world (World Health Or-
ganization [WHO], 2020a). A major source of concern
is the paerns of declining participation in physical
activity (PA) in the population. is is observable at
work, where many physical tasks have been automat-
ed, in instrumental PA, such as transport, shopping,
housework, and gardening, and during leisure time,
in sport and outdoor activities (WHO, 2020b). Given
that the opportunities to increase PA in work and in-
strumental activities are limited, the role of leisure-
time sport and PA is gaining greater priority among
governments and major health organizations, such as
the WHO (WHO, 2020c). Because most leisure-time
sport and PA is optional, individuals must decide to
participate, and the evidence is that participation is
declining globally (WHO, 2020b, c). For the purpose
of this article, we considered exercise and sport to fall
under the broad rubric of PA, as dened by the WHO
(2020b). A key factor that inuences individuals’ de-
cision to participate in leisure-time sport and PA is
motivation (Morris & Rogers, 2004; Roychowdhury,
2020). us, it is important to understand what moti-
vates individuals to participate in leisure-time PA and
sport, and the factors that inuence motives for par-
ticipation in PA. One promising approach to under-
standing motives for participation in PA is through
their quantitative measurement, using validated in-
struments (Frederick &Ryan, 1993; Morris, Clayton,
Power, & Han, 1996a). is allows researchers and
practitioners in health-related PA to understand the
range of motives for participation (e.g., Kueh, Kuan,
&Morris, 2017; Molanorouzi, Khoo, &Morris, 2014)
and to determine the relationship of motives to inten-
sity of participation (Abdullah, Kueh, Hana, Morris,
&Kuan, 2019; Molanorouzi, Khoo, &Morris, 2015b).
Further, by using validated measures of PA participa-
tion motives, researchers have the potential to iden-
tify ways to enhance inuential motives, leading to
increases in the intensity of individuals’ involvement
in leisure-time sport and PA (Morris, 2019; Roychow-
dhury, 2019). e purpose of this paper is to describe
the development and structure of one measure of
motives for participation in PA, the Physical Activ-
ity and Leisure Motivation Scale (PALMS), to report
its use in increasing understanding of the relation-
ship between motives and PA, and to propose ways
in which understanding gleaned from the measure-
ment of participation motives can be applied to in-
crease individuals’ participation in leisure-time PA
for physical health and psychological wellbeing.
Researchers have provided increasing evidence
of the inuence of PA on health and wellbeing. is
work includes many studies that have related non-
communicable, chronic diseases, associated with the
highest levels of global morbidity and mortality, to
physical inactivity. is includes coronary heart dis-
ease (Wardoku, Blair, Demmer, &Prizment, 2019), di-
abetes (Silva etal., 2019), and certain forms of cancer
(Friedenreich, Neilson, & Lynch, 2010). Conditions
that aect psychological wellbeing have also been
linked to low levels of physical activity. Pre-eminent
among these are the pervasive psychological prob-
lems of depression (Dinas, Koutedakis, & Flouris,
2010) and anxiety (Stubbs et al., 2017). Notably, re-
searchers have demonstrated that interventions that
are designed to increase participation in PA can re-
duce the risk of individuals contracting these life-
threatening physical and mental conditions (Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020). Al-
ternatively, research has shown that participation in
regular PA can ameliorate the impact of these chronic
conditions in people already experiencing them (An-
derson &Durstine, 2019). Evidence that participation
in PA can protect against and help to manage the
most prevalent life-threatening, non-communicable
health risks is of critical importance, yet monitoring
of the paerns of participation in leisure-time PA in-
dicates that this knowledge has not led to an increase
in the prevalence or intensity of participation in PA.
In fact, participation continues to decline worldwide
(WHO, 2020b).
e WHO has monitored global levels of leisure-
time PA for some time. Recent WHO data have in-
dicated that levels of PA are not increasing (WHO,
2020a, b, c). Global estimates indicate that over the
past 15 years, levels of insucient activity have not
improved (28.5% in 2001, 27.5% in 2016). Globally in
2016, 23% of men and 32% of women aged 18+ years
were insuciently physically active. In arecent study,
Guthold, Stevens, Riley, and Bull (2018) reported that
more than 1.4 billion adults are at risk of disease from
not doing enough PA and that no improvement in
global levels of PA has been recorded since 2001. Al-
though local, state, and national governments, as well
as major health organizations, have developed pro-
grams that aim to increase sport and PA participation,
the evidence suggests that these have not reversed
the trend of declining participation in leisure-time
PA (Lewis, Napolitano, Buman, Williams, & Nigg,
2016). e conclusion is that alternative strategies ap-
pear to be necessary to reverse the declining trend in
participation in leisure-time PA. One approach that
has potential is to examine the relationship between
motivation and PA participation. More specically,
determining whether and understanding how mo-
tives for participation in PA inuence actual levels
of participation could lead to the development of ap-
proaches to promote PA participation in the popula-
tion (Morris, 2019; Roychowdhury, 2019).
Based on the broader conception of motivation,
researchers have examined the reasons why peo-
ple participate in sport and PA. In perhaps the rst
Role of motives
for participation
in physical activity
393
8(4),
substantive work of this kind, Gill, Gross, and Hud-
dleston (1983) developed the Participation Motiva-
tion estionnaire (PMQ) from qualitative research
on youth sports. In an exploratory factor analy-
sis (EFA) of PMQ items generated from interview
themes, Gill et al. (1983) identied eight motives,
namely achievement, team (aliation/social), tness,
energy release, to be with others, skill, friends, and
fun. Researchers applied the PMQ in studies of youth
and adults participating in sport at various levels, as
well as in general leisure-time PA (Brodkin &Weiss,
1990; Buonamano, Cei, & Mussino, 1995; Gould,
Feltz, &Weiss, 1985; Kirkby, Kolt, &Liu, 1999; Klint
&Weiss, 1987; Kolt et al., 1999; Longhurst &Spink,
1987; Morris &Han, 1991; Morris, Power, &Pappa-
lardo, 1993; Sutherland & Morris, 1997; Weinberg
etal., 2000). A problem with research examining the
PMQ is that the questionnaire was developed using
an empirical, atheoretical approach. Gill etal. (1983)
generated PMQ items from the qualitative study and
the motives were derived from an EFA. When other
researchers examined the PMQ, they derived avari-
ety of motives varying from as few as four (Long-
hurst &Spink, 1987) to as many as 11 motives (Mor-
ris & Han, 1991). Morris, Clayton, Power, and Han
(1995) added items, based on feedback from partici-
pants in their earlier studies. us, the research liter-
ature on the PMQ does not present astable measure
with afrequently replicated set of motives.
An alternative approach is exemplied by the de-
velopment of the Motivation for Physical Activity
Measure (MPAM; Frederick &Ryan, 1993). Frederick
and Ryan developed the motives in MPAM from Deci
and Ryan’s (1985) self-determination theory (SDT) in
the context of PA for health and tness. In the origi-
nal MPAM, there were just three motives, namely in-
terest/enjoyment, competence motivation, and body-
related motivation, which addressed the competence
and autonomy needs that Deci and Ryan proposed
as the sources of motivation. In a revision of the
measure, Ryan, Frederick, Lepes, Rubio, and Sheldon
(1997) added asocial motive to address the related-
ness need proposed in SDT. Ryan et al. (1997) also
separated health into two motives that they termed
tness and appearance. e resulting Motivation
for Physical Activity Measure-Revised (MPAM-R;
Ryan etal., 1997) thus consisted of ve motives. e
MPAM-R still appears to lack a number of key mo-
tives that have been identied in other scales, based
on empirical studies (e.g., Morris &Rogers, 2004).
A number of other questionnaires have also been
developed to measure participation motivation in
sport and exercise contexts. ese include the 28-
item Sport Motivation Scale (SMS; Fortier, Vallerand,
Brière, &Provencher, 1995), the 44-item Exercise Mo-
tivation Inventory (EMI; Markland & Hardy, 1993),
the 69-item EMI-2 (Markland &Ingledew, 1997), and
the 32-item Exercise Motivation Scale (EMS; Li, 1999).
Fortier et al. (1995) developed the SMS to examine
the levels of self-regulation that Deci and Ryan (1985)
proposed in organismic integration theory (OIT),
asub-theory of SDT. us, the SMS does not identify
dierent motives. e EMI, EMI-2, and EMS all focus
specically on exercise, so they are not broad enough
to cover all leisure-time PA.
To summarize, measures of motives for participa-
tion in sport and PA reect variations in the number
of motives that they include. A number of measures
have emerged from empirical studies, so they are not
underpinned by theoretical frameworks, whereas
others have been developed on the basis of theories,
so motives commonly present in empirically derived
scales do not appear in the theoretically generated
measures. Most measures of motives for participation
in PA were developed in specic contexts and vali-
dated with samples from those contexts, so their jus-
tiable application might be limited to those contexts,
such as exercise, e.g., EMI, MPAM-R, or youth sport,
e.g., PMQ. Ideally, measures should be developed that
can be applied to sport and PA generally, that ad-
dress the range of motives that are reected across
validated questionnaires and that are generated on
the basis of empirical evidence, yet reect theoretical
underpinnings. Such measures should have the po-
tential to enhance understanding of how motives for
participation in PA can be applied to promote levels of
involvement in sport and PA globally. It is within this
context that the Physical Activity and Leisure Moti-
vation Scale (PALMS) has been developed.
development of the physical
activi ty and leisure mot ivation
Scale (PalMS)
Development of the PALMS involved a number of
stages. In the rst of these steps, we conducted aqual-
itative study in which we asked recreational exercis-
ers about what they considered to be success when
they participated in PA (Rogers, Morris, & Moore,
2008). We considered recreational exercisers to be in-
dividuals who participated in exercise that was not
performed under aformal, rule-governed framework,
such as running, but not in organized, competitive
races, or doing aerobics, but not in team tournaments.
is was intended to explore the achievement goals
that exercisers espoused. We predicted that exercis-
ers might have goals beyond the task and ego goals
found in competitive sport (Duda, 1988). However,
we were surprised to nd that seven themes emerged
that corresponded closely with motives for participa-
tion in PA. We decided to use the qualitative results as
the basis to develop aquestionnaire to measure par-
ticipation motives. is questionnaire is the 73-item
Recreational Exercise Motivation Measure (REMM).
We validated the REMM in astudy with asample of
Tony Morris,
Dev
Roychowdhury
394
750 recreational exercisers and a parallel study with
a sample of 250 recreational level sport performers
(Rogers &Morris, 2003). We considered recreational
sports performers to be individuals who participat-
ed in sport that was not performed under a formal,
rule-governed framework, such as those who played
basketball, but not in a formal league, or those who
played tennis, but not in organized competitions. An
EFA for each sample produced equivalent results,
identifying eight factors that corresponded to motives
for participation in PA. e health theme from the ear-
lier qualitative study divided into two motives, which
we identied as physical condition or health and ap-
pearance. e factors were not orthogonal, indicating
that the motives grouped into higher-order factors,
so we conducted asecond-order factor analysis. is
produced three second-order factors. Examining the
motives that formed each of the second-order factors,
we identied them as intrinsic motivation, extrinsic
body-mind motivation, and extrinsic social motiva-
tion as shown in Figure 1.
REMM is avalid and reliable (the coecient α for
the total scale was found to be .94 in the recreation-
al exercise sample and .92 in the recreational sport
sample) measure of motives for participation in PA.
However, at 73 items in length it is too long for use
in research that involves multiple repeated tests of
motives in the same sample over a period of time,
such as when the participation motives measure is
used to monitor changes in motives across anumber
of occasions due to interventions. Participants could
experience boredom or fatigue that would aect their
responses to later items in the REMM. Eects of the
length of the REMM are likely to be even more prob-
lematic in applied work. In addition, results could be
aected by variations in the number of items that
measure each motive. In the REMM, the number of
items varies from aminimum of eight items for the
physical condition motive to amaximum of 13 items
for the competition/ego motive. To create a more
manageable scale, we used item analysis procedures
to select the ve strongest items for each motive
(Morris & Rogers, 2004). is produced a 40-item
measure consisting of ve items for each of eight mo-
tives. We called this measure the Physical Activity
and Leisure Motivation Scale (PALMS) to reect the
scale of the changes that we had made. In light of the
extent of change from the REMM to the PALMS, are-
duction from 73 items to 40 items representing close
to a50% reduction in the number of items, we consid-
ered that it was appropriate to validate the PALMS.
We conducted a preliminary validation in Aus-
tralia with asample of 202 participants from ve di-
verse types of PA (Roychowdhury, 2012, 2018a). e
activities were tennis (n = 30), representing a rac-
quet sport, Australian Rules Football or AFL (n=42),
representing a team ball sport, gym-based aerobics
(n=44), representing an exercise activity, taekwondo
(n=36), representing martial arts, and yoga (n=36),
representing anon-competitive physical activity. For
Figure 1. Second-order factor analysis of the eight motives of REMM.
Note. From “Examining reasons for participation in sport and exercise using the Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale
(PALMS)” by D. Roychowdhury, 2012, Doctoral dissertation, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia (hp://vuir.vu.edu.au/19943/).
Copyright D. Roychowdhury.
Mastery
Enjoyment
Ailiation
Competition
Other’s expectations
Physical health
Psychological health
Appearance
REMM
Intrinsic
motives
Social
motives
Body/mind
motives
Extrinsic motives
Role of motives
for participation
in physical activity
395
8(4),
the purposes of validation, analyses were conducted
with the whole sample. Internal consistency for the
eight motive subscales was measured using Cron-
bach’s α coecient. Values of α were all acceptable,
ranging from α=.80 for the others’ expectations mo-
tive to α=.99 for the aliation motive. We tested the
8-factor structure of the PALMS using conrmatory
factor analysis (CFA). e data produced agood t to
the 8-factor model, with CMIN/DF=2.22, NFI=0.95,
CFI= 0.96, RMSEA = 0.08. We also examined crite-
rion validity of the PALMS by correlating the eight
motives in the PALMS with the corresponding eight
motives in REMM. is also produced results sup-
portive of the validity of the PALMS.
A primary reason we chose ve activities, each of
which represented adierent type of PA, was to com-
pare the results with ndings from an earlier study in
which we examined dierences in motives for various
types of PA, using the PMQ to measure motives (Mor-
ris etal., 1996a). In alarge sample of 2,601 participants
from 14 dierent sports and non-competitive types of
PA, we compared racquet sports, including tennis,
table tennis, and badminton, team ball sports, in-
cluding hockey and AFL, individual body movement
sports, including gymnastics and swimming, exercise
activities, including aerobics and weight training, and
martial arts, including judo, taekwondo, and tai chi.
To test for dierences in motives for participation be-
tween the ve types of activity, we used discriminant
function analysis (DFA) to dierentiate each type of
activity from the rest of the sample in turn. We found
that racquet games participants scored higher on com-
petition-ego than the rest of the sample. is suggests
that individuals who are high on competition/ego
chose racquet sports because racquet sports provide
the clearest opportunity to demonstrate higher ability
than others by defeating them in one-to-one competi-
tion. Team ball sports participants were discriminated
from the rest of the sample by higher scores on the af-
liation motive. is indicates that apre-eminent rea-
son why individuals chose team sports was to inter-
act with others while playing sports. Not surprisingly,
the discriminating motive for exercisers was physical
condition. More than the rest of the sample, exercis-
ers were motivated by the perceived health benets of
doing aerobics or weight training. Martial arts partici-
pants were discriminated from the rest of the sample
by astrong motive to develop their skills and achieve
mastery in their PA. is reects the non-competitive
nature of the martial arts we examined at the level of
participation of most individuals in the study, as well
as the importance of learning skills that were rela-
tively new to many of these individuals. ere was no
discriminating motive for individual body movement
participants.
In the study conducted by Roychowdhury (2012)
15 years later, using the PALMS, as opposed to the
PMQ, results for sports and non-competitive activi-
ties representing four out of the ve types of PA in
the earlier study were encouragingly similar to the
earlier results. Competition/ego was prominent for
racquet sports, aliation was the pre-eminent mo-
tive for AFL players, physical condition was the most
important motive for exercisers, and mastery was the
primary motive for martial arts and yoga. Acknowl-
edging that this was a preliminary study, given the
limited sample size and the restriction to one activity
of each type, the equivalence of results for the large
sample 1996 study, using the PMQ, and the smaller
2012 study, using the PALMS, suggests that there
might be consistent paerns of primary motives in
categories of PA that share major characteristics,
such as one-to-one competition, being part of ateam,
or improving health. is has implications for the use
of motives to direct individuals to the type of activity
that could satisfy their primary motives. Continued
satisfaction of primary motives could lead individu-
als to participate at agreater intensity and continue
participating for longer.
in ternational validation
of the palms
Since the rst validation study done by Roychowd-
hury (2012), the PALMS has been validated in anum-
ber of countries around the world. For instance, Zach,
Bar-Eli, Morris, and Rogers (2012) administered the
PALMS to 678 regular exercisers (ages ranging from
9 to 89 years) in Hebrew in Israel and found that it
demonstrated strong psychometric properties with
reliability alphas ranging from .63 to .96. An EFA
yielded nine factors: competition/ego, appearance,
family and friends’ expectations, health profession-
als’ and employers’ expectations, aliation, physi-
cal condition, psychological condition, mastery, and
enjoyment. Although the nal factor structure that
emerged from the analysis was very similar to that
of the original PALMS, the factor labeled others’
expectations was found to be split into two distinct
factors: family and friends’ expectations, and health
professionals’ and employers’ expectations. Despite
this, the structure produced in this study seemed to
capture motives people have for participating in rec-
reational exercise and sport that have previously not
been covered by other questionnaires. e PALMS
has also been validated in English in a Malaysian
context, with 502 volunteer adult participants who
represented avariety of PA categories, including in-
dividual sports, team sports, martial arts and exercise
(Molanorouzi etal., 2014). Overall, the PALMS dem-
onstrated strong internal consistency (Cronbach’sα
coecient of .79) and test-retest reliability (values
ranging between .78 and .94 for the eight motives
over a4-week period). A CFA revealed good t indi-
ces for the 8-factor model structure (CMIN/DF=2.82,
Tony Morris,
Dev
Roychowdhury
396
NFI = 0.90, CFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.06). e PALMS
has also been administered in a Brazilian context,
where it demonstrated strong internal consistency
(Cronbach’s α coecient of .88) and factor structure
(Frainer, 2017). Overall, these studies indicate that the
PALMS not only demonstrated solid factor structure,
reliability, and validity, but also showed its applicabil-
ity to dierent cultural contexts.
Additionally, the PALMS has been translated into
other languages. Zarei etal. (2016) examined the re-
liability, validity, and factorial structure of the Farsi
version of the PALMS in asample from the Iranian
population. e forward translation of the PALMS
from English to Farsi was done by two dierent in-
dependent bilingual translators whose rst language
was Farsi. Whereas one of the translators, who was
a psychologist experienced in translating psycho-
logical questionnaires, was aware of the purpose of
PALMS translation, the other translator had no psy-
chological background and was uninformed about
the purpose of the study. Once these two transla-
tors discussed dierences in translation and resolved
inconsistencies, the back translation of the Farsi
version to English was performed by one bilingual
translator whose rst language was English. Amul-
tidisciplinary expert commiee was then set up that
evaluated and reviewed the nal Farsi translation
and back translation into English. is commiee
reached a consensus on a pre-nal version of the
Farsi version of the PALMS once all the translations
were considered idiomatically, semantically, and cul-
turally equivalent. e last dra was pre-tested with
asample of 30 recreational exercisers to assess clar-
ity. Based on the feedback, changes were made, and
anal version of the Farsi PALMS was established,
which was subsequently validated with 406 volun-
teer adult participants. e results indicated that the
internal consistency for each subscale of the Farsi
version of the PALMS varied between .62 and .88,
with the homogeneity of the whole PALMS being .91.
e Farsi version of the PALMS also showed strong
test-retest correlations ranging from .84 to .94. An
EFA revealed 9 factors: competition/ego, appearance,
others’ expectations, aliation, psychological condi-
tion, enjoyment, mastery, nancial gain, and to be
with others. is is consistent with the results from
the Hebrew version of the PALMS cited by Zach etal.
(2012), who also reported nine factors. However, it
was found that the loading of the items on each fac-
tor was more similar to the original 8-factor structure
that was reported by Morris and Rogers (2004) for
the original PALMS. Overall, Zarei etal. (2016) dem-
onstrated that the Farsi version of the PALMS was
areliable and valid instrument that could be used in
future research focusing on PA in Iran.
e PALMS has also been translated into Malay
using a conrmatory approach (Kueh etal., 2017).
is scale, the PALMS-Malay (PALMS-M), was ad-
ministered to 634 university undergraduate students.
A modication of the path model in aCFA by deleting
two problematic items and adding acovariance be-
tween items’ error for two items resulted in improved
t indices (CItRMSEA=1.00, CFI=0.91, TLI=0.90,
RMSEA = 0.04). Although the nal measurement
model for the PALMS-M consisted of 38items, it re-
tained the 8-factor structure of the original PALMS.
Similarly, the PALMS was also translated into ai.
e PALMS ai (PALMS-T) was administered to
739 university students (Kuan, Bhasavanija, Abdul-
lah, Morris, &Kueh, 2018). CFA results indicated that
the hypothesized model resulted in agood t to the
data with acceptable levels of t indices (CFI=0.92,
TLI = 0.91, RMSEA =0.06). e nal measurement
model of the PALMS-T also demonstrated moderate
to good construct reliabilities (values ranging from
.68 to .91) and sound discriminant validity (values for
subscale correlations were below .85). Overall, the
PALMS-T retained the 8-factor structure and 40items
of the original PALMS and it was demonstrated to be
a reliable and valid instrument for measuring par-
ticipation motivation in a ai context. Moreover,
researchers have also reported using the translated
version of the PALMS in Japanese and Mandarin lan-
guages (Machida, Yamada, Araki, & Tsuchiya, 2013;
Wang, Morris, Khoo, Hu, &Tang, 2013). Overall, the
majority of the international validation studies have
reported adequate t to the 40-item, 8-factor struc-
ture of the PALMS, indicating strong support for its
reliability and validity across diverse cultures and
languages.
development of the youth palms
In early research with the PALMS, samples included
children and youth, alongside adults (Roychowdhury,
2012; Zach etal., 2012). No problems were observed,
probably because the majority of participants were
adults. However, in astudy conducted in Finland, in
which all the participants were 16- to 18-year-old
adolescents at a sport school, the others’ expecta-
tions motive did not resolve in the CFA (Aypar, Ruiz,
& Morris, 2017). Examination of items in the oth-
ers’ expectations motive indicated that most related
to being paid to perform, which was not relevant
to these adolescents, while another item referred
to participating to treat a chronic health condition,
which again did not apply to healthy sport school
students. Consistent “strongly disagree” responses
by this sample conrmed the problem. In addition,
a40-item scale might be rather long for younger chil-
dren, leading to boredom or fatigue. It was evident
that amodied version should be more eective for
children and adolescents. Hu, Morris, and Lyu (2019)
examined a35-item version of the PALMS, in which
the ve others’ expectations motive items were re-
Role of motives
for participation
in physical activity
397
8(4),
moved. ey administered this version to asample
of 232 Chinese children and adolescents between
12and 15 years of age. e 7-motive model was con-
rmed in EFA, and α coecients between .79 and
.92 supported internal consistency. Hu etal. (2019)
then conducted a study with 434 Chinese children
and adolescents, aged 14 to 16 years, using a28-item
version, in which they removed the least-strong item
from each 5-item subscale, based on item analysis of
the data from the previous study. is le four items
on each of seven motive subscales. e reliability and
validity results were sound, with strong t indices
in CFA and α coecients between .82 and .93. Hu
etal. (2019) proposed this as the PALMS for Youth
(PALMS-Y). e PALMS-Y has also been used suc-
cessfully in astudy of Malaysian adolescents (Kueh,
Abdullah, Kuan, Morris, &Naing, 2018).
development of the palms
for extreme sports
During the period of development of the PALMS, evi-
dence was growing to indicate that participation in
traditional forms of sport and PA was, on the whole,
declining (WHO, 2020a, c), whereas what had come
to be termed “extreme sports” was showing asteady
increase in participation (Hajkowicz, Cook, Wilhelm-
seder, &Boughen, 2013). is is of particular interest
for researchers studying motives for participation in
physical activity. A primary question raised relates
to the motives that underlie the increase in extreme
sports participation that are not satised by involve-
ment in traditional sports and PA, which appears to
be on the decline. e researchers realized that by
simply applying the PALMS to extreme sports, they
ran the risk of missing important motives that were
not captured by the qualitative studies underlying
questionnaires, such as the PMQ and the PALMS,
which had asked traditional sports participants to
describe their motives. Zhou, Chlebosz, Tower, and
Morris (2019) conducted a qualitative study among
high-level Chinese extreme sport participants, focus-
ing their open-ended questions on the reasons why
they participated. In thematic content analysis of the
participants’ responses, conducted from an inductive
perspective, Zhou etal. (2019) identied seven of the
eight motives in the PALMS. Only the appearance
motive did not emerge. is was not surprising given
that most of the participants were involved in sports
such as rock climbing and mountaineering, where
appearance would have lile relevance. Two new
motives did emerge, namely vertigo and catharsis.
ese motives correspond to those in work by Ke-
nyon (1968) on what he termed aitudes to physical
education. Vertigo can be described as doing an activ-
ity for the thrill, risk, danger, or excitement. Cathar-
sis involves the refreshment of the spirit associated
with completing an extreme activity in which one’s
personal resources, perhaps even one’s life and limb,
are tested. Zhou etal. (2019) developed ve items to
measure each of vertigo and catharsis and, following
a validation process, included them in a reordered
50-item, 10-motive PALMS. e new, broader PALMS
is in the process of validation and use to compare mo-
tives for participation in PA between traditional and
extreme sports. e researchers are also examining
types of activity within those two main categories,
namely traditional and extreme physical activity.
palms research
It is conventional to examine variations in psycholog-
ical variables related to demographic variables, par-
ticularly gender and age. However, there have been
limited studies examining variations between levels
of PALMS motives in terms of demographic variables.
A number of studies report descriptive statistics
(means, SDs) for major demographic variables, but
few have directly tested hypotheses related to gender
or age. Molanorouzi, Khoo, and Morris (2015a) com-
pared adult PALMS motives in astudy of 657 female
and 703 male PA participants in Malaysia. Using DFA
to distinguish between levels of motives for the two
genders, they found that females were more motivat-
ed than males by appearance and physical condition,
whereas males were more motivated by competi-
tion and mastery. An interesting study by Kueh etal.
(2018) examined the measurement and factorial struc-
ture invariance of the PALMS-Y across gender in ado-
lescents. Kueh etal. (2018) reported that there was no
variance between genders. Invariance is an important
question for future studies to examine, in dierent
populations and for various demographic variables.
is is because it is only when there is invariance be-
tween variables such as gender that it is meaningful
to compare male and female samples for dierences
between motives in diverse contexts with condence
that the statistical dierences do not reect inherent
dierences in the way that the dierent genders re-
spond to the items in the scale that was administered.
Dierent age groups have been compared in
some studies, but samples are rarely large enough
to test across the lifespan. It is possible to compare
data from dierent studies that have used the adult
PALMS with dierent age cohorts, but comparisons
of this kind are likely to be confounded by extrane-
ous factors that vary from study to study. In earlier
work, using aversion of the PMQ (Gill et al., 1983)
that measured motives corresponding to the PALMS
with many similar items, Morris, Clayton, Power,
and Song (1996b) conducted DFA among alarge sam-
ple of 2,601 Australians, ranging in age from 10 to 80
years. Morris etal. (1996b) reported that adolescents
were discriminated by astrong motive to master new
Tony Morris,
Dev
Roychowdhury
398
skills, young adults by a strong motive to compete,
adults by amotive to maintain health, mid-life adults
by amotive to cope with stress, and older adults by
amotive to manage chronic health conditions. Most
studies that have applied the PALMS have not sys-
tematically sampled participants to cover the breadth
of age that would allow them to test predictions about
age dierences. Molanorouzi etal. (2015a) grouped
their sample of 1,360 Malaysian PA participants into
two broader age categories, young adults, who were
20- to 40-year-olds (n=763) and middle-aged adults,
who were 41- to 64-year-olds (n= 597). DFA indi-
cated that the young adults were more motivated by
aliation, mastery, and enjoyment, whereas the mid-
dle-aged adults were more motivated by psychologi-
cal condition and others’ expectations.
Noteworthy ndings have emerged from research
on characteristics related to PA. A potentially fruitful
proposition is that primary motives for participation
will vary for dierent types of PA. However, exam-
ining types of PA to determine whether the primary
motives vary in a meaningful way between them is
fraught with methodological problems. As with age
and gender, to identify signicant dierences requires
avery large sample, given that there are alarge num-
ber of dierent types of activity. Further, the sheer di-
versity of sports and non-competitive PA modalities
means that it is very dicult to produce an incontro-
vertible categorical system. In alarge Australian study
(N=2,601) using PMQ, Morris etal. (1996b) systemat-
ically gathered data from ve apriori categories that
they generated. In DFAs, they found that racquet sport
participants (tennis, table tennis, squash) were strong-
ly motivated by competition, team ball sports partici-
pants (AFL, basketball, hockey, lacrosse) by aliation,
non-competitive PA participants (aerobics, gym cir-
cuit training) by the health motive, and martial arts
participants (karate, taekwondo, tai chi) by mastery,
while individual body movement activity participants
(swimming, gymnastics) were not discriminated. One
problem with this categorization is that major activi-
ties that would be classied in each of the categories
were not examined. Another is that some activities
that were classied together might not have alot in
common, for example, aerobics and circuit training. It
is likely that this was the problem with the category
rather vaguely labelled “body movement” sports. On
reection, it is evident that gymnastics is an artistic
sport that is scored by judges, whereas swimming is
aracing sport, in which the result is determined by
“rst past the post”, in this case rst to touch the wall.
In future research, gymnastics might more meaning-
fully be grouped with other sports judged on techni-
cal and artistic merit, including trampolining, gure
skating, and diving, whereas swimming could be cat-
egorized with other racing sports, such as track ath-
letics and cycling. In asmaller Australian study, of ne-
cessity, participants were chosen to represent the ve
dierent PA types (Roychowdhury, 2012, 2018a; Roy-
chowdhury &Morris, 2013). Administering the adult
PALMS, Roychowdhury examined motives in AFL,
gym-based exercise, tennis, taekwondo, and yoga.
Using DFA, it was found that AFL participants were
discriminated by higher aliation and lower others’
expectations and appearance motives than the rest of
the sample, gym-based exercisers by higher appear-
ance and lower others’ expectations motives, tennis
participants by higher competition/ego and lower
others’ expectations motives, taekwondo participants
by higher mastery and enjoyment and lower others’
expectations and appearance motives, and yoga par-
ticipants by higher mastery and psychological condi-
tion and lower others’ expectations, aliation, and
competition/ego motives than the rest of the sample.
In amore recent study, also using the PALMS, Mola-
norouzi etal. (2015a) asked 1,360individuals to name
their main PA as they completed the PALMS. en
the activities were grouped by three researchers in-
dependently and activity categories were arrived at
by consensus. e range of popular physical activities
fell into the same ve categories as in the Morris etal.
(1996b) study, except that this time an individual rac-
ing sports category emerged. Once again, the PALMS
data were then analyzed using DFA. Molanorouzi
etal. (2015a) reported that racquet sport participants
were discriminated by higher mastery and competi-
tion motives than the rest of the sample, team ball
sport participants by higher aliation and mastery,
non-competitive exercise participants by higher psy-
chological condition, appearance and physical condi-
tion motives, but lower mastery and competition mo-
tives, martial arts participants by higher competition,
mastery and psychological condition motives, and
individual racing participants by higher enjoyment,
with lower appearance and aliation motives than
the rest of the sample.
Valuable research has been conducted identify-
ing motives and describing their paerns in rela-
tion to demographic variables, including gender and
age, as well as distinguishing between motivational
proles typical of dierent types of PA. Nonethe-
less, the boom line for the application of motives
to enhance participation relates to the question of
whether motives for participation in PA are associ-
ated with higher levels of active participation in PA.
Molanorouzi etal. (2015b) examined this in astudy
involving 489 male undergraduate students. ey
completed the adult PALMS and the International
Physical Activity estionnaire (IPAQ) on two occa-
sions 14 weeks apart. is allowed the researchers to
perform concurrent and predictive tests in both di-
rections. Because major motives had been shown to
dier with types of activity, the sample was separat-
ed into three types of activity, namely racquet sports,
team ball sports, and exercisers. e key correlations
referred to motives on Occasion 1 and PA on Oc-
Role of motives
for participation
in physical activity
399
8(4),
casion 2 because this reected the extent to which
motives were associated with PA 14 weeks later. For
racquet sport players, the highest correlations of
motives with IPAQ MET-minutes per week were for
competition (r=.65) and mastery (r=.64). For team
ball sports, the highest correlations were for alia-
tion (r=.73) and mastery (r=.71). For exercisers, the
highest correlations were for psychological condition
(r=.69) and enjoyment (r=.67). Based on Cohen’s
(1988) determination that eect sizes for Pearson’s
product-moment correlation coecient are large if
they are r=.5 or above, for each activity sub-sample,
the correlations between two motives and actual PA
were found to show large eect sizes. ese nd-
ings support the main hypothesis of the Molanorouzi
etal. (2015b) study that motives for participation in
PA predicted the amount of PA individuals undertook
14 weeks later. ey also reect the expectation that
the primary motives vary depending on the type of
PA in which individuals participate, as suggested in
the DFA studies of activity types reported previously
(Molanorouzi etal., 2015a; Morris etal., 1996b; Roy-
chowdhury, 2012; Roychowdhury &Morris, 2013).
Abdullah et al. (2019) conducted another study
that examined the relationship between motives for
participation in PA and amount of PA. To examine
this relationship, Abdullah etal. (2019) administered
the PALMS-Y and the Godin-Shephard Leisure-time
Physical Activity estionnaire (Godin, 2011) in
Chinese to 304 Chinese secondary school students
(male = 165; female = 139) in Kelantan, Malaysia.
Abdullah etal. (2019) found signicant positive cor-
relations between all seven motives in the PALMS-Y
and the Godin scale. e highest correlations were
for psychological condition (r=.27), mastery (r=.22),
and aliation (r=.22). e correlations in this study
were lower than those found in the Molanorouzi
et al. (2015b) study. is could partly be explained
by failure to control the type of PA variable, which
seems to moderate the relationship between motives
and amount of physical activity. Participants in the
Abdullah etal. (2019) study comprised aconvenience
sample of 12- to 15-year-old students who volun-
teered to complete the questionnaires. us, they
represented participants in diverse popular sports,
including a mix of team ball sports, racquet sports,
individual body movement sports, martial arts, and
non-competitive exercise activities, which doubtless
created noise in the data. Nonetheless, the key mo-
tives from the Molanorouzi etal. (2015b) study were
prominent. e early studies of motives and amount
of PA are indicative, but it is important for research-
ers to conduct larger, more sophisticated, well-con-
trolled studies on this critical issue.
In a new direction for research on motives for
participation in PA, researchers are seeking to under-
stand the roles of other psychological variables in the
relationship between motives and amount of PA. Ex-
amining possible antecedents of motives is important
for the eectiveness of interventions that enhance
motives. Research on variables that have the poten-
tial to mediate between motives and amount of PA
is equally crucial. One psychological variable could
be an antecedent of motives or amediator. Bandura
(1977) proposed that self-ecacy inuences motiva-
tion. When self-ecacy for abehavior or task is high,
people are motivated to perform that task, whereas
when self-ecacy is low, individuals avoid the task.
Also, self-ecacy can mediate between psychologi-
cal variables and behavior (Mansouriyeh, Pourshar-
i, Sadeghi, & Seira, 2017; omas, Muralidharan,
Medo, & Drapalski, 2016). us, it is possible that
even when motives are high, individuals still do not
perform the task, because self-ecacy is low, that is,
if those individuals have alow level of condence
(Axelsson, Lötvall, Cliordson, Lundgren, &Brink,
2013; de Souza, Torres, Barbosa, de Lima, &de Souza,
2014). To examine the role of self-ecacy, Yoo etal.
(2018) administered the PALMS, the Exercise Self-ef-
cacy Scale (ESES; McAuley, 1993), and the Barriers
Self-ecacy Scale (BARSE; McAuley, 1992) to asam-
ple of 384 Korean adult participants. Using structural
equation modelling (SEM), Yoo etal. (2018) generated
and tested two models. In the rst, the two aspects
of self-ecacy were portrayed as antecedents of
motives for participation. In the second model, the
self-ecacy variables were presented as mediators of
self-ecacy for PA. SEM indicated that self-ecacy
was asignicant mediator, but not asignicant ante-
cedent of motives for participation in PA. In asimi-
lar study, with 666 12- to 18-year-old adolescents in
China, Hu, Kueh, and Morris (2018) administered the
PALMS-Y, ESES, BARSE, and the Godin-Shephard
Leisure-time Physical Activity estionnaire (Godin,
2011). Again, Hu etal. (2018) tested amodel in which
self-ecacy was an antecedent of motives, which
then inuenced PA, and a model in which motives
inuenced PA through the mediation of self-ecacy.
Once more, it was the barriers aspect of self-ecacy
that proved signicant. Physical condition and com-
petition-ego motives inuenced the amount of PA,
but both were mediated by barriers to self-ecacy.
us, it was only when individuals were condent
that they could overcome arange of barriers to par-
ticipate in their chosen activity that their motive to
maintain or enhance their physical condition and
their motive to compete to show their competence
led them to undertake a larger amount of PA. Re-
search on the role of self-ecacy in the relationship
between participation motives and PA has just be-
gun, but shows early potential to be informative.
Another variable that is considered to enable mo-
tivational tendencies is mindfulness (Roychowdhury
& Morris, 2019; Roychowdhury, Morris, & Spile,
2018). Research on participation motivation and dis-
positional mindfulness has shown promising results.
Tony Morris,
Dev
Roychowdhury
400
Exploring the associations between mindfulness and
health behaviors, researchers have found that stu-
dents who report higher scores of self-reported mind-
fulness appear to have higher motivation to practice
healthy habits, such as geing enough sleep, eating
well, and exercising, compared to those students who
report lower scores. (Gilbert & Waltz, 2010; Mur-
phy, Mermelstein, Edwards, &Gidycz, 2012; Roberts
&Dano-Burg, 2010). Studies have also shown that
mindfulness-based programs that help participants
change their approach to their thoughts and emo-
tions about obesity resulted in lower psychological
distress, greater weight loss, and an increase in PA
(Lillis, Hayes, Bunting, &Masuda, 2009; Tapper etal.,
2009). us, by becoming aware of their thoughts,
emotions, and sensations due to behavior change,
and by accepting them, individuals showed height-
ened awareness of good health behavior (Duon,
2008). Although it is evident that mindfulness skills
and motivational regulation favor higher PA levels,
the direction and intensity of this relationship are
not known. For instance, on one hand, studies have
found that the highest scores of mindfulness and ac-
ceptance are linked to a long-term PA increase and
maintenance (Chatzisarantis &Hagger, 2007; Ulmer,
Stetson, &Salmon, 2010). On the other hand, Mothes,
Klaperski, Seelig, Schmidt, and Fuchs (2014) found in
a randomized controlled trial that an aerobic exer-
cise intervention increased self-reported mindfulness
in men. us, future research in this domain should
examine the relationship between mindfulness and
motivation and explore how that relationship aects
PA levels.
Passion is a variable that has recently aracted
increasing aention in sport and exercise, as well
as in areas including education and business. is is
largely due to the work of Vallerand (Vallerand, 2008,
2010, 2012, 2015; Vallerand etal., 2003), who proposed
adualistic model of passion, comprising harmonious
passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP). Passion is
conceived to be an intense araction to an object or
behavior, leading individuals to be highly motivated
to perform the behavior. us, passion is considered
to be related to intrinsic motivation, representing the
extreme form of motivation, in which the behavior
has been integrated into individuals’ personality.
Clearly, passion is closely related to motives for par-
ticipation in PA. Habib, Khoo, and Morris (submit-
ted) conducted a preliminary investigation of the
relationship between passion, participation motives,
and physical activity. Habib etal. (submied) admin-
istered Urdu versions of the Passion Scale (Vallerand
etal., 2003), which measures HP and OP, the PALMS,
and the IPAQ to 572 adults in Pakistan. HP showed
high positive correlations with all eight PALMS mo-
tives, whereas OP showed low negative correlations
with all PALMS motives. In multiple hierarchical re-
gression analysis, PALMS mastery and physical con-
dition motives and HP were signicant predictors
of overall physical activity. is study suggests that
PALMS and HP are closely related and together they
can predict greater variance in PA (26%) than they
do separately, showing promise for further research.
In conclusion, research on arange of issues related
to motives for participation in PA is in its early stag-
es, but most issues that have been addressed show
promise for further research. Such research should
increase understanding of the variables that motives
aect, those variables that aect motives, and those
variables that mediate the eect of motives on im-
portant outcome variables, particularly the actual
amount of PA people do. Examining the relationship
between motives and PA should be the primary focus
of research in the near future.
motivational profi ling
ere is now strong evidence that PA plays amajor
role in promoting physical health and psychological
wellbeing and that motivation is astrong predictor of
participation in PA. Given that around half the global
adult population do not do sucient, sustained PA to
achieve health benets (WHO, 2020b) and children
and adolescents’ participation in traditional forms
of PA and sport are also declining (Hu etal., 2018),
promoting long-term adherence to and involvement
in PA is vitally important. us, it is essential to
measure motives for participation and relate them to
paerns of participation. is will not only help pro-
mote motives that enhance participation in PA, but
also help match motivational paerns to appropriate
forms of PA.
Researchers have reported that dierent paerns of
motives are associated with participation in dierent
types of PA (e.g., Molanorouzi etal., 2015a). It is, there-
fore, essential for researchers and practitioners to de-
velop and implement techniques to advise individuals
about the type of PA that their paerns of motives for
PA participation indicate is likely to lead to long-term
participation at levels sucient to achieve satisfaction
and promote health and wellbeing. As avalid and reli-
able measure of motives for participation, the PALMS
has demonstrated asolid 8-factor structure that could
be used to advise individuals about the kinds of ac-
tivities that they are likely to nd will satisfy their
motives for PA. Using aconsistent and systematic ap-
proach of displaying results of tests for participation
in dierent kinds of PA, the paerns of motives for
PA participation using the PALMS can be presented as
proles (Morris, Roychowdhury, &Khoo, 2019). is
type of motivational proling can then be used to ad-
vise people about the kinds of activities that they are
likely to nd will satisfy their motives for PA. Mor-
ris etal. (2019) argue that such motivational proles
should clearly present the sequence of motives and
Role of motives
for participation
in physical activity
401
8(4),
their relationships with PA in a manner that would
also allow for easy comparisons across groups, condi-
tions, and factors. Based on the 8-motive format that
has been consistently derived from PALMS research,
we propose that the sequence of motives should be
displayed based on their intrinsic to extrinsic motiva-
tion orientation and should follow the order: mastery,
enjoyment, psychological condition, physical condi-
tion, appearance, others’ expectations, aliation, and
competition/ego. A standard way of sequencing mo-
tives in aprole, displaying intrinsic motives on the
extreme le to extrinsic motives on the extreme right,
is presented in Figure 2.
Researchers and health practitioners should use
the PALMS to create motivational proles to advise
individuals on the type of PA in which they should
participate to obtain desired health benets, enhance
satisfaction, and improve long-term adherence (Mor-
ris & Roychowdhury, 2015; Morris et al., 2019). For
instance, individuals whose PALMS prole indicates
astrong aliation motive might be advised to partic-
ipate in team sports to satisfy their need for social re-
lationships. Similarly, individuals who display apro-
le in which competition/ego is prominent might be
advised to participate in PA involving head-to-head
competition. For instance, Figure 2 depicts a hypo-
thetical PALMS prole for individuals who display
a strong appearance motive. Based on the motiva-
tional prole, these individuals might be advised to
participate in gym-based PA to satisfy their need to
make their body look the way they want it to.
is kind of proling and matching will not only
maximize satisfaction; it will also reduce drop-out,
a phenomenon that is prevalent in sport at many
levels, and in the health and tness industry. Prol-
ing could also allow health practitioners to monitor
changes in motivation that individuals might display
over aperiod of time. For instance, individuals diag-
nosed with obesity and recommended to undertake
gym-based exercise by their doctor or family might
initially display a high others’ expectations prole
on PALMS. But with consistent eort and results in
the gym, the same individuals, in amaer of afew
months, might become more motivated to improve
their body shape. It would be plausible to argue that
the PALMS prole for such individuals might look
dierent with appearance or physical condition
prominent. Despite the fact that human motivation
or engagement in PA is rarely alinear process, ex-
isting questionnaires in the PA literature fail to ac-
knowledge this, and hence they are limited in their
applicability. e creation of motivational proles,
using the PALMS in this domain, has noteworthy
implications. Health practitioners and consultants
could use the PALMS to create and monitor moti-
vational proles for individuals. ese motivational
proles could not only be used to inform individuals
about their primary participation motives and ap-
propriate motives-PA match, but also monitor their
progress over aperiod of time to ensure that they are
able to maximize their satisfaction and obtain desired
health benets.
using motives for partici pation
to enhance physical activi ty
for h ealth
Research that has been conducted to examine the re-
lationship between motives for participation in PA
and the amount of PA people do is limited to date. As
reported in the previous section, initial studies sug-
gest that certain motives do inuence how much PA
people do (Abdullah et al., 2019; Molanorouzi et al.,
2015b), and that the crucial motives vary depending
on the type of PA (Molanorouzi etal., 2015b). Further
research should be conducted with large and diverse
samples to verify these early ndings. Nonetheless, if
the relationship between motives for participation in
PA and the amount of PA people do is conrmed, par-
ticipation motives could be important factors to con-
sider when aiming to increase PA for health among
various populations. Here we propose two approach-
es that could be applied to develop understanding of
the role of participation motives in PA promotion. e
rst approach involves matching motives to types of
PA, and the second approach involves using interven-
tions to enhance the levels of targeted motives, high
levels of which are expected to lead to increases in the
amount of PA that people undertake.
Based on the increasing evidence that high levels
of specic motives are related to higher levels of PA
participation (Abdullah etal., 2019; Molanorouzi etal.,
Figure 2. Sequence of motives in PALMS profile.
Mastery
Enjoyment
Psych Cond
Phys Cond
Appearance
Other’s exp
Ailiation
Ego-Comp
20
15
10
5
0
PALMS score
Note. From “Motives for participation in physical activity:
Measurement, prediction, and profiling.” by T. Morris &D.Roy-
chowdhury, 2015, Paper presented at 14th European Federation
of Sport Psychology Congress, Bern, Switzerland (hps://boris.
unibe.ch/71978/1/FEPSAC%20CONGRESS%202015%20Proceed-
ings.pdf). Copyright T. Morris & D. Roychowdhury.
Tony Morris,
Dev
Roychowdhury
402
2015b) and that distinct motives play aprimary role in
dierent types of PA (Molanorouzi etal., 2015a; Mor-
ris etal., 1996b; Roychowdhury, 2012, 2018a, b, 2020),
one reason why many people do not maintain their
participation in activities over the long term is that
they choose activities that do not satisfy their mo-
tives for participating. For example, individuals with
ahigh competition-ego motive, of which they are not
aware, might join a non-competitive exercise pro-
gram because it is local and easily accessible, but soon
drop out because it does not provide the opportunity
for them to compete. Another example could be that
people with astrong, but unconscious, motive to par-
ticipate in PA to improve their appearance might be
encouraged by friends to join alocal sport team, only
to nd that the team is invested in aculture of post-
game beer and kebabs. Many people might not even
start to participate because the options that seem to
be available to them appear unaractive, but they
have no idea what activity they would like to join. It
is possible that all these problems could be resolved
by matching motives with activity type.
Increasing evidence indicates that specic mo-
tives discriminate one type of PA from others (Mola-
norouzi etal., 2015a; Morris etal., 1996b; Roychowd-
hury, 2012, 2018a, b, 2020; Roychowdhury &Morris,
2013, 2019) and that each type of PA displays adis-
tinct paern or motivational prole (Morris &Roy-
chowdhury, 2015; Morris et al., 2019). Individuals
who have tried certain types of PA and felt dissatis-
ed or those who do not know which type of PA to
choose could be helped by completing the PALMS,
on the basis of which they could be given generic
advice that might help them to select an activity that
would suit them. For example, based on evidence
from the motives and type of PA studies, individuals
with astrong motive for aliation would be advised
that they might nd satisfaction by participating in
agroup activity. If asecondary motive favored non-
competitive exercise, the advice might focus more on
group exercise activities, whereas were secondary
motives to indicate an interest in competition-ego,
competitive team sports could be recommended. An-
other example might be individuals whose primary
motive is mastery. e advice in this case would be for
those individuals to select an activity in which they
would learn new skills, which would open up awide
range of PA. Again, where the secondary motives re-
ected non-competitive activities, exercise activities
involving skill components would be advised, where-
as for individuals whose prole was more competi-
tive, individual sports involving skills or competitive
martial arts would be suggested. Although there are
some clear indications from the research conducted
to date, the guidance that is provided will be rened
and moderated, as further research on participation
motives and types of PA is conducted. It would be in-
teresting to see studies in which this kind of match-
ing is conducted with participants in one condition
and participants in another condition simply choose
their activity based on factors the individuals deter-
mine, including ease of access and the inuence of
friends. en all participants would be followed up
over asubstantial period of time, for example, 6 or
12months, to determine whether there is any dier-
ence in the long-term amount of participation and
maintenance of the chosen activity.
Strong evidence of the impact of motives on par-
ticipation in PA could be derived from intervention
studies that apply eective techniques to increase the
level of key motives for participation in PA and then
examine the impact this has on PA participation. De-
termining whether there are universal key motives,
or, perhaps more likely, what the key motives under
dierent contextual conditions are, is atask that has
yet to be systematically undertaken. Reection on the
literature to date does suggest that certain motives
have been more prominent than others. For example,
studies that have examined motives and types of PA
using DFA have identied dierent motives that dis-
criminated in dierent types of activity (Molanorouzi
et al., 2015a; Morris et al., 1996b; Roychowdhury,
2012, 2018a; Roychowdhury & Morris, 2013). How-
ever, when the absolute values of motives were ex-
amined in motivational proles, the intrinsic motive,
enjoyment, was found to be high or highest across
proles for most motives (Morris &Roychowdhury,
2015; Morris etal., 2019; Roychowdhury & Morris,
2013). us, perhaps not surprisingly, individuals’
enjoyment of the PA in which they are participating
seems to be astrong motive for doing alarger amount
of PA than among people who do not have such
ahigh level of enjoyment. Interventions that enhance
individuals’ enjoyment would thus be predicted to
increase their long-term participation in PA. Such
interventions might include mastery goal seing de-
signed to increase enjoyment in a stepwise fashion
(Benita, Roth, &Deci, 2014; Puente-Diaz, 2012), im-
agery of enjoying participation in PA (Kosteli, Wil-
liams, &Cumming, 2018; Stanley &Cumming, 2010),
or positive self-talk reinforcing enjoyment (Hardy,
Hall, &Hardy, 2010). In studies examining the rela-
tionship between participation motives and other
variables, such as self-ecacy (Yoo etal., 2018) and
passion (Habib et al., submied), mastery has been
a prominent motive. Similar interventions to those
employed to enhance enjoyment could be developed
to promote the mastery motive. For example, mastery
goal seing in which the focus is on stepwise increas-
es in performance of aPA skill should be reected in
increases in the mastery motive (Benita etal., 2014),
and motivational general mastery imagery (Hall,
Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas, 1998) has been shown
to be eective in increasing individuals’ perception
of their mastery, which is likely to increase mastery
motivation (Hammond, Gregg, Hrycaiko, Mactavish,
Role of motives
for participation
in physical activity
403
8(4),
&Leslie-Toogood, 2012; Koehn, Morris, &Wa, 2013,
2014). e two examples of enjoyment and mastery
were chosen because they emerged from research
pertinent to the issue of identifying key motives for
participation in PA that would be worthy of interven-
tion. Perhaps it is not coincidental that they are the
two motives that reect intrinsic motivation, based
on Deci and Ryan’s (1985) SDT. Intrinsic motivation
has been shown to lead to maintenance of behaviors,
such as PA, in the long term (Ryan etal., 1997; Teix-
eira, Carraça, Markland, Silva, & Ryan, 2012), which
is amajor aim of programs that promote long-term
PA for health. us, mastery and enjoyment, the two
intrinsic motives in PALMS, appear to be important
variables for researchers to examine further. Research
on interventions to enhance motives for participation
in PA that aims ultimately to increase participation
in PA has yet to be initiated. However, there is great
potential in such research. We encourage researchers
to explore this type of intervention research.
conclusions
Despite the well-documented benets of engaging in
regular PA, global estimates indicate that participation
in PA around the world is declining. is is asource of
major concern. Declining participation in PA not only
means that people are unable to obtain the desired
health benets, but it also suggests that they are more
likely to develop health conditions, especially given
that lifestyles globally have become exceedingly au-
tomated and sedentary. It is, therefore, important to
motivate people to engage in PA. More specically, it
is important to understand what motivates people to
participate in PA and the factors that inuence mo-
tives for participation in PA, so that health research-
ers and practitioners can design appropriate interven-
tions and programs to target inactivity.
Researchers in PA have developed theoretical and
atheoretical approaches to examine the reasons peo-
ple give for engaging in PA. Consequently, a num-
ber of questionnaires that aim to measure motives
for PA participation have been developed. However,
most of these measures have drawbacks and do not
comprehensively cover the breadth of motives for PA
participation. Building on the limitations of previous
questionnaires, we developed the PALMS, which has
since been demonstrated to be a reliable and valid
measure of motives for participation in PA that can
be used across diverse cultures, ages, and languages.
Using the PALMS, we have found that people par-
ticipate in distinct types of PA for dierent reasons
and that their participation in particular PA may be
characterized by primary and specic participation
motives. ese dierences have been observed across
age, gender, skill level, and amount and type of PA un-
dertaken. Future research in this domain should use
the PALMS to examine the relationship between mo-
tives for PA participation and extent of participation
in dierent types of PA. In addition, it is important to
study psychological variables that can inuence mo-
tives, such as self-ecacy, mindfulness, and passion,
and that could mediate or moderate the motives-PA
participation relationship. In the future, it will also be
valuable to examine environmental and personal an-
tecedents to motives for participation, such as social
and cultural inuences during childhood, proximal
contextual factors, character, and temperament.
We hope that future research in this domain will
help to develop a comprehensive understanding of
the various reasons people have for participating in
dierent types of PA. is knowledge will hopefully
enable researchers and practitioners to design eec-
tive interventions to match motives with appropriate
types of PA, thereby enhancing satisfaction and rais-
ing levels of targeted motives to increase PA partici-
pation around the world. is should lead to people
gaining the health benets they desire and reducing
the prevalence of lifestyle-related illnesses.
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