Review
Motivational climate interventions in physical education: A meta-analysis

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Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this study was to synthesize findings from motivational climate interventions employing Ames, 1992a, Ames, 1992b and Epstein, 1988, Epstein, 1989 TARGET framework within school-based physical education contexts.

Design

The present study employed a quantitative research synthesis design. Meta-analysis uses empirical studies to summarize past research by drawing overall conclusions from separate investigations. This research design highlights important and unsolved issues related to motivational climate interventions within physical education.

Methods

Standard meta-analytic procedures incorporating inclusion and exclusion criteria, literature search, coding procedures, and statistical methods were used to identify and synthesize 22 studies with 24 independent samples. Cohen’s (1988) criteria for effect sizes were used to interpret and evaluate results.

Results

There was an overall small positive treatment effect (g = 0.103) for groups exposed to mastery motivational climates. Outcome analyses identified the most consistent and largest overall treatment effects for behavioral outcomes (g = 0.39–0.49) followed by affective outcomes (g = −0.27 to 0.59) and cognitive outcomes (g = −0.25 to 0.32). Moderator analyses were directed by study heterogeneity and identified several trends in intervention features and study features with the most substantial trend for participant features as elementary students had the largest overall treatment effect (g = 0.41).

Conclusions

Outcome and moderator analyses identified several trends in methodological features, participant features, and study features that should be addressed in future physical education motivational climate interventions.

Highlights

► Mastery motivational climates produced a small overall positive effect for students in physical education. ► Outcome analyses identified the largest effects in student behavioral responses. ► Moderator analyses produced no significant differences; however, several trends were present. ► Recommendations for future motivational climate interventions in physical education settings are based on outcome and moderator analyses.

Section snippets

Motivational climate

Within AGT, the term ‘motivational climate’ has been adopted to encompass the study of environmental factors that lead individuals to construe competence in different ways and pursue different goals. One way to define one’s competence is through the perception of self improvement and mastery of skills, whereas a second perspective entails the comparison of one’s own ability with that of others in a salient reference group. Logically, individuals who employ the first definition pursue goals

Motivational climate interventions

Reviews of motivational climate research in physical activity highlight the prevalence of cross-sectional studies that seek to identify the correlates of perceived mastery and performance climates (see Duda & Whitehead, 1998; Harwood et al., 2008, Ntoumanis and Biddle, 1999). This comprehensive body of work provides support for the positive or adaptive correlates (e.g., confidence, enjoyment, task orientation) associated with mastery climate, whereas performance climate is often not associated

Literature search & inclusion criteria

A literature search was conducted in three phases that included a) an electronic database search, b) a search for review articles and c) a search of the reference sections in articles determined to be relevant from the previous searches (a & b). Electronic database searches were performed in Academic Search Elite, ArticleFirst, ERIC, Medline, OmniFile, Physical Education Index, Proquest Dissertations and Theses, PsychINFO, PsychARTICLES, and SportDiscus using variations of the keywords

Results

The primary purpose of the current study was to determine the overall effectiveness across all outcomes of motivational climate interventions and the secondary purpose was to determine the effect of motivational climate interventions (TARGET) on specific affective, behavioral, and cognitive outcomes in school-based physical education. There were a total of 22 studies with 24 independent samples that included 4932 participants meeting inclusion criteria. The overall inter-rater agreement between

Discussion

The purpose of our literature synthesis was twofold and focused on the effectiveness of motivational climate interventions and moderating factors that contributed to positive or negative results in physical education contexts. Our results found an overall positive treatment effect for groups and participants exposed to a mastery motivational climate and negative effects for untreated control groups or performance climate conditions. More specifically, TARGET strategies used to manipulate an

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    References marked with an asterisk (*) indicate studies included in the meta-analysis.

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