Transplant recipients’ motivational orientation towards sport participation and physical activity enjoyment at the 2019 World Transplant Games in Newcastle-Gateshead UK

Abstract

This study adopted a descriptive correlational design to identify organ transplant athletes’ motivational behaviour and level of physical activity enjoyment during the 2019 World Transplant Games. The causal relationship between motivational behaviour and enjoyment was also determined. Data was collected through questionnaires during the event that tapped participants’ demographic information and responses to the Task and Ego Orientation Questionnaire, Sport Motivation Scale-2 and Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale. Descriptive statistics revealed that transplant athletes (n = 119; Mage = 52.92 years, SD = 13.51) find sport mostly enjoyable whilst holding a strong task-oriented approach towards sport participation with high approximations of intrinsic, integrated and identified motivation. Male and female athletes also shared a relatively similar motivational profile with male athletes reporting significantly higher levels of sport enjoyment compared to their female counterparts. Inferential statistics further revealed significant associations between most dimensions of motivation and level of enjoyment, of which gender and certain aspects of motivation were exposed as significant predictors of athletes’ reported enjoyment in sport. It is advised that autonomous regulatory behaviours be garnered in transplant recipients looking to start/continue sport participation as it proved to be prime correlates and determinants of enjoyment in sport.