Relationship between motivational mechanisms, expected sports performance and perceived health status in long-distance runners: A mediation model

This study intended to identify motives for participation in long-distance running races, and how they relate to athletes’ perceived health status and expected race time. The purposive sample consisted of 1849 athletes between the ages of 18 and 74. The instruments included the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-3 (BREQ-3), the expected outcome of the long-distance runners in the race, and their perceived health status. A mediation analysis was conducted to examine the mediation effect of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on the athletes’ expected outcome and their perceived health. Mediation Model 1 had a significant indirect effect on the expected outcome of the runners and their perceived health status. The opposite was found in Model 2, where there was no significant indirect effect. Psychological and motivational factors were found to have an effect on sports performance. The study identified a mediating effect of intrinsic motivation on the relationship between the expected outcome of the athletes in the race and the perceived health status of long-distance runners. It was not possible to demonstrate that extrinsic motivation had the same effect. The discussion seeks to gain better knowledge of the motivational factors that contribute to the best performance of long-distance runners. Keywords: Extrinsic motivation; Intrinsic motivation; Expected performance; Perceived health status; Long-distance runners