An Investigation of Youth Football

Players’ Participation Motivations

and Health Related Behaviors
Main Idea

The main idea of the text is to examine the motivating factors that really inspire

youth soccer athletes (YFA) involved in soccer practices and competitions and

their health-related behaviors.

Introduction

Sport and health are inseparable companions in people's lives. There is a mutual

reciprocity between the two. Sport improves physical and mental health, but it is

also true that without health, with few exceptions, you cannot practice sport. In

today's society we live submerged hour after hour, day after day in a stressful

situation that little by little is damaging our health. In such circumstances, we have

to practice some physical activity, it is also the best antidote to combat sedentary

lifestyle.

Developing

This subject of motivation is becoming more and more interesting, it is much more

complex than anyone can imagine at first glance. There are different types of

variables that must be controlled or at least necessarily taken into account if we

intend to work seriously, if we are talking about motivation. We have raised issues

such as the different motivational sources in relation to the age of the athletes, the
importance of peer groups, the significance of individual differences in this field and

now we plan to enter a topic already mentioned but not developed. in depth and it

is "the abandonment of sports practice", which obviously has a direct link with

sports motivations. We will therefore develop everything that has to do with sports

exhaustion, scientifically known as the “Burnout effect”.

Currently, burnout is considered a three-dimensional syndrome characterized by

emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal fulfillment. The

main symptoms would include negative attitudes, numbness, guilt, and would

share various associated problems such as fatigue, insomnia, headaches,

digestive problems, alcohol and drug abuse, social problems, absenteeism and

depression.

Another variable is that we all know that to develop an activity you need a

commitment to it, a sufficient motivation. Faced with relatively permanent stress-

generating situations, it is difficult to demand the athlete to maintain their

commitment to the sport, because they will not obtain the desired degree of

satisfaction, quite the opposite. Schmitd (1991) states that an athlete would suffer

burnout and could decide to abandon the sport if the components associated with

their commitment to sport were unbalanced: decrease in reinforcements (decrease

in the rewards that the athlete usually received), increase in costs (basically those

of an affective and emotional nature), a decrease in satisfaction with sports

practice, a decrease in the alternatives that sport offers, and an increase in the

investment (monetary, effort, etc.) to be made. In these cases, the cessation of

sports activity linked to a point of emotional exhaustion or burnout, is not only a

consequence of it but also a piece of advice to be followed to intervene

therapeutically in the face of the syndrome.

Conclusion

With regard to the two particular hypotheses that guided the current study, the

findings revealed that hypothesis one is true, which is: “There are no significant

differences in motivational factors between the 'Support' aspect (by parents, by

school) of the YFP. And that hypothesis two is not true, which is: in the aspect

'Setting objectives': there are significant differences in the motivational factors

between the 'for professional', 'for non-professional' of the YFP. YFPs who set their

goal for professionals are more motivated than YFPs who set their goal for non-

professionals.

Specifically, the following MFs, such as: MF1 'Technical content and unique value',

MF10 'Become a professional gamer', MF9 'To improve health', MF17 'To develop

unique skills', MF8' To shape the body 'and MF4' For the enjoyment and

happiness' has the greatest power of impact on the motivations of these YFP.

Finally, in the aspect of health-related behaviors, we can qualitatively conclude that

the large average score of the health-related behaviors of the participants in the

four subcategories was located between the position of 'Excellent' (4) and ' Very

good '(3) using a four-point evaluation scale.