Money talks when it comes to motivating kids to participate sport, but possibly not in the way you think. If you have ever rewarded your children, for example, by offering money for them to score goals, you may be driving them to dropout in
Money talks when it comes to motivating kids to participate sport, but possibly not in the way you think. If you have ever rewarded your children, for example, by offering money for them to score goals, you may be driving them to dropout in the longer term. To understand why, we need to take a look at the science of motivation.
A growing body of research is showing that it is not so much the quantity of motivation that matters, but rather the quality of motivation. In other words, not all motivation is equal, and some types are better for our well being than others.
The highest quality form of motivation is known as the enjoyment/interest flavour. Children who are predominantly motivated by this flavour play their sport because they love it so much or find it really stimulating. They don’t need anyone to motivate them to play; try stopping them! They are the football players who dribble the ball all around the house when they are getting ready for school in the morning, or the swimmers who spend their time in the bath seeing how long they can hold their breath underwater. They are curious about every aspect of their sport and their development feels like an adventure.
The identity and value flavours of motivation are the next highest quality types of motivation. Children predominant in these types of motivation play because their sport feels like part of their identity or because they feel it’s important to play. They might participate because they value learning new skills. These players do not need the adults in their lives to motivate them, they are focused on their sport.
All of these forms of motivation are known as autonomous motivation because in each instance the child feels self-driven to participate, not driven by external pressures such as pleasing a parent. When children mostly experience autonomous motivation, they are likely to invest more effort in their sport, perform better, be more persistent, have higher wellbeing, and have fewer symptoms of burnout. These types of motivation are in contrast to controlled motivation, where, over-time children are more likely to have low wellbeing and high illbeing, such as burnout. There are two types of more controlled motivations.
The guilt/pride flavour is one type of controlled motivation. Children predominant in this type of motivation, participate in their sport to avoid feelings of guilt, perhaps associated with letting a parent or coach down. Alternatively, they might participate to seek the feeling of pride because they thrive on showing off their skills relative to others.
The last type of controlled motivation is the reward/punishment flavour. Children who are mostly motivated by this flavour participate for tangible rewards such as money for scoring goals, treats after games, or the promise of the latest boots born by their sporting heroes. Alternatively, they can play to avoid punishments, such as not being allowed to hang out with friends or pl