The roles of motivational climate, relatedness and goal orientation in predicting dispositional flow in physical education

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived motivational climate in physical education, dispositional goal orientation, relatedness and dispositional flow in a sample of 356 secondary school students between the ages of 12 and 16. Since Papaioannou, Tsigilis and Kosmidou’s scales of perceived motivational climate and goal orientation (2007) had not previously been applied to the Spanish educational context, the psychometric properties were analysed. The results revealed that the scales were valid and reliable for measuring the perception of motivational climate and dispositional orientation in physical education classes with Spanish adolescents. A multiple linear regression analysis found that dispositional flow was predicted positively in 45% of the cases by the perception of the performance approach climate, mastery and performance orientation approaches and relatedness. The inclusion of social and approach-avoidance goals together allowed for a more complete analysis of achievement motivation in physical education (AU)