Physical activity and sport: attitudes and perceptions of young Canadian athletes

The failure of the literature to report consistent attitude-behaviour relationships or show evidence of stability in children's attitudes toward physical activity (CATPA) led to an examination of the construct physical activity as an attitude object. Five hundred and fifty young male and female athletes were surveyed to obtain the following information; CATPA, children's attitudes toward the specific sport (CATSS) in which they were involved, and the activities perceived to be representative of six physical activity subdomains. Significant differences among sport groups were found in three of the attitude subdomains, the most noticeable being for females in the Aesthetic subdomain. In general, the athletes' perceived physical activities represented the sport in which they were participating. The small differences between CATPA and CATSS mean scores, along with the results of both canonical analysis and factor analysis, led to the conclusion that children's attitudes toward the construct physical activity are essentially equivalent to their attitudes toward a specific sport. The validity of physical activity as a well defined attitude object ws substantiated for young Canadian athletes.