Age‐group differences in intrinsic motivation, goal orientations and perceptions of athletic competence, physical appearance and motivational climate in Greek physical education

This study examined age‐group differences in students' motivation, self‐perceptions, task and ego orientations and perception of motivational climate in Greek physical education lessons. Six hundred and seventy‐four students aged 10–17 years responded on self‐reports which, in this study, had acceptable internal consistencies. The results showed that senior high school students scored lower on the scales assessing intrinsic motivation, perceived learning orientation in the lesson, task orientation and perceived athletic ability than junior high school and elementary school students. High school students had lower scores on the Perceived Physical Appearance scale and higher scores on the measure assessing perceptions of students' worries about mistakes than elementary school students. The results suggest that learning orientation should be strengthened in Greek physical education.