A Comparative Study on Motivational Factors for Physical Activity between Male and Female Students of Islamic Azad University based on Selfdetermination Theory

Background: The current study aims to investigate and compare motivational factors for participating in physical activity between male and female students of Islamic Azad University branched of 8th Region (Iran) based on self-determination theory. Materials and Methods: The statistical population includes 273,000 people in 24 brancheslocated in Tehran from which 384 subjects are selected as the research sample by using arandom sampling technique. The personality questionnaire and Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) consisting of 28 questions to measure three types of motivation - intrinsic motivation,extrinsic motivation (identified regulation, external regulation, introjected regulation), and a motivation - are used to collect data. When data validity confirmed, the questionnaires aredistributed among 30 people to assess the reliability of research (α =.80). An independentsamples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and post hoc Tukey test are applied to determine whether there are significant differences among means (p=0.000). Further,Kolmogorov– Smirnoff (K-S) and Levin test are carried out to examine the normality and homogeneity of variances. Results and Discussions: The results showed that there is a significant difference in female college students for intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and a motivation; andthat there is a significant difference in male college students for intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and a motivation. Conclusion: Considering the findings of the present research, however, the result reveals that there is no significant difference between intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and its subscales (identified regulation, external regulation, introjected regulation) and a motivation.