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The development and validation of the pictorial motivation scale in physical activity

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Abstract

The purpose of the present research was to report the validation of the pictorial motivation scale in English. This scale is designed for adolescents and adults with an intellectual disability who are unable to independently read a questionnaire. The scale has a picture and phrase depicting 16 items related to participation in sport and physical activity; four for each of the following subscales, intrinsic motivation, self-determined extrinsic motivation, non self-determined extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. Phase 1 of the research describes the formal translation of the scale from French to English. Results from three studies conducted with Special Olympians (Phase 2) and adolescents in a special school (Phases 3 and 4) provided support for the internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and factorial and construct validity of the scale. Overall, the scale would appear to be sufficiently reliable and valid to warrant its continued use and further development.

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Notes

  1. There are a number of reasons why potential participants did not return informed consent documents. Some may simply have exercised their right not to participate perhaps because expectations were not clear despite our best efforts. Others may have forgotten to take the documents home, or lost them within a backpack. We did not ascertain the reasons and do not know if the sample of 80 was different from the 230 in an important way in the context of this research.

  2. These participants attended a special high school designed for those with an intellectual disability. We use the term “learning difficulties” for reasons indicated in the text, but this should not be confused with learning disabilities, a term which refers to a specific category of individuals in special education, very different from those who participated in the current study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, McGill University, 475 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC, H2W 1S4, Canada

    Greg Reid & Carole Poulin

  2. Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Comportement Social, Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Robert J. Vallerand

  3. Department of Human Kinetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Peter Crocker

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  1. Greg Reid
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  2. Robert J. Vallerand
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  3. Carole Poulin
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  4. Peter Crocker
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Correspondence to Greg Reid.

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Reid, G., Vallerand, R.J., Poulin, C. et al. The development and validation of the pictorial motivation scale in physical activity. Motiv Emot 33, 161–172 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-008-9117-x

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