Motives for performing recreational sports activities of pupils in the alpine regions of Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the motives of pupils from the alpine regions of Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the performance of recreational sports activity considering gender and the size of the town. The research was conducted among 1,190 18-year-old pupils (M=18.54±0.32 years). These were 299 boys and 300 girls from large towns and 291 boys and 300 girls from small towns. The applied research tool was the German version of the questionnaire for measuring sport motivation. The most important motives for recreational sports activity of all pupils are health, social and ascetic motives. The boys prefer asceticism and risks, the girls prefer aesthetics and health. The social motive is significantly less important for the Swiss youth compared to the other nations. German girls prefer asceticism more than Austrian and Swiss girls. The motives for recreational sports activity are of similar importance to the pupils from large and small towns of all three nations.