Body Appreciation and Attitudes Towards Healthy Nutrition as a Predictor of Adolescent Athletes' Motivation to Participate in Physical Activity

The opportunities and conveniences brought by the developing technology greatly reduce the workload of individuals. The restrictions occurring from the Covid pandemic also allow us to easily do all our work from home over the internet. However, this situation has caused a serious decrease in the physical activity rate of individuals. The decrease in physical activity increases the tendency for eating easily accessible and unhealthy foods, leading to a move away from healthy nutrition habits. Unhealthy nutrition, on the other hand, causes negative situations in our body, both physically and physiologically. The aim of this study is to examine whether the motivation of adolescent athletes to participate in physical activity is related to and predicted by the variables of body appreciation and attitude towards healthy nutrition. This research is a relational study aiming to determine whether body appreciation and attitude levels towards healthy nutrition predict the adolescents’ motivations for participating in physical activities. A total of 335 athletes, 104 (31%) girls and 231 (69%) boys, playing basketball in Istanbul and Mersin in 2021-2022, voluntarily participated in the study. They were between the ages of 12-17. Attitude Scale for Healthy nutrition, Body appreciation Scale and the Motivation Scale for Participation in Physical Activity were used for data collection. Stepwise multiple linear regression was used in data analysis. It was revealed that the variables of body appreciation and attitude towards healthy nutrition have significant roles in predicting the motivation of adolescent athletes for participating in physical activities. The variable of Attitude for Healthy nutrition, included in the model in the first stage, explained 16% of the total variance. In the second stage, when the body appreciation variable was added to the model, the explained variance increased to 18%. The regression coefficients manifested that these two variables are positively correlated with motivation to participate in physical activities. Thus, the two-stage model predicted 18% of the total variance. Both physical characteristics and attitudes towards healthy nutrition are effective in the motivation of adolescent athletes to participate in physical activities.