Academic motivation in the initial training of physical education teachers

Integrated regulation has been showed as the motivational regulation with the highest predictive power on adaptive behaviors in different life domains; however, it has not been examined in the educational context yet. The purpose of this study was to incorporate the assessment of integrated regulation to the Academic Motivation Scale in the initial training of Physical Education teachers in Brazil and examine the psychometric properties of this instrument. There were 333 undergraduate participants from the bachelor degree of Physical Education, Federal University of Espirito Santo/ Brazil. Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable fit indices for the eight-factor correlated structure. The results of the regression analysis showed that the variable integrated regulation was the strongest predictor of the intention to become a teacher. This new instrument may contribute to a deeper understanding of the motivational processes involved in the initial training of physical education teacher.