A Study of Youth Badminton Players’ Participation Motivation and Relate Elements*

This study examined those essential factors truly motivated youth athletes taking-part in Badminton practices and competitions using the Adapted Questionnaire of Badminton Athlete's Motivation-Chinese Version (AQBAM -CV ).Participants were 87 youth badminton athletes (52 boys, 35 girls; age 13-17) from Jiangsu province, China.The AQBAM -CV contains three parts: the primary part asks: "What factors motivate you to take-part in badminton practices and competitions continually?"Eighteen motivation factors (MFs) were provided for participants to respond with a 5-points Likert type scale from 5-points "Strongly-agree" to 1-points "Disagree".Data analyses were through a 2 (boy or girl) x 2 (Middle-School or High-School) x 2 (Sport-School-Athlete or Tradition-Badminton-School-Varsity-Athlete) MANOVA.Results showed no significant difference in the 'Gender'; however, significant differences were found in 'School-Level'; and 'Athlete-Types'.Post hoc tests revealed that: among the 18 MFs comparisons, only MF6 "To contest winners" reached significant difference in 'School-Levels' with Middle-School scored higher than High-School.However, there were two motivation factors -MF9 "become professional player" and MF17 "become a coach" reached significant difference in 'Athlete-Types' with Sport-School-Athlete scored higher than the Tradition-Badminton-School-Varsity-Athlete.Results are discussed regarding with the differences and similarities about youth athletes' participation motivations between those previous studies and the current study.