Sport Motivation from the Perspective of Health, Institutional Embeddedness and Academic Persistence among Higher Educational Students

Regular physical activity from an early age is an important part of a healthy life because if we incorporate exercise early into our lifestyle, we are more likely to maintain our commitment to sport into adulthood and even throughout our lives. In our research, we used the PERSIST 2019 database, which contains data from students at higher education institutions in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine, and Serbia. We used factor analysis to isolate four sports motivation factors (intrinsic, introjected, extrinsic, and amotivation). Factors influencing the different types were measured using linear regression analysis, involving the variables in four models. The results show that the effects of the sociodemographic variables are significant for gender, country, and mother’s job, especially in terms of intrinsic, introjected, and extrinsic motivation. The role of coping is salient for health awareness factors, with a positive effect on intrinsic motivation and a negative effect on the other types. The impacts of quality of education and support are typically negative, while the positive effect of satisfaction with infrastructure is noteworthy. The effect of persistence in sport on intrinsic and introjected motivation is positive. Frequency of training increases intrinsic motivation, while practical sport embeddedness generates extrinsic motivation. In terms of relationships, a mainly teacher-oriented network within the institution typically has a negative effect on intrinsic motivation, while peer relationships outside the institution typically increase intrinsic and extrinsic sport motivation. Academic persistence has a positive effect on intrinsic motivation and a negative effect on introjected motivation. Our research highlights the complexity of factors influencing sport motivation and the role of coping, which typically remains strong when relationship-related variables are included. In addition, we must emphasise the dominant role of relationship network patterns, which may even reduce commitment to sport.