Conference proceeding
Validation of Second Order Factors Using Motivations of Marathoners Scales (MOMS) in Men and Women Masters Athletes
Applied Psychology Readings: Selected Papers from the Singapore Conference on Applied Psychology 2024, pp.59-82
Springer Proceedings in Behavioral & Health Sciences
Singapore Conference on Applied Psychology 2024 (Singapore, 05/12/2024–06/12/2024)
11/11/2025
Appears in Recent Faculty of Health Publications
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Abstract
Participant motivation a significant factor for athletes in the selection sports and evaluates factors that enhance or inhibit motivation to participate. Participant motivation in sport has been measured numerous times in the past 15 years by Motivations of Marathoners Scale (MOMS) psychometric instrument, which contains 55 general questions related to why athletes compete. The questions evaluate nine first order factors and four second order factors. The second order factor physical health motive is linked to first order factors of general health orientation and weight concern; second order factor of social motives is linked to first order factors of affiliation and recognition; second order factor of achievement motives is linked to first order factors of competition and personal goal achievement; and second order factor of psychological motives is linked to first order factors of psychological coping, self-esteem, and life meaning. The aim was to evaluate the second order factor structure of the MOMS instrument in men and women master’s athletes to assess if second order factor structures were common or unique to gender. Research design was cross-sectional correlation-factor analysis using a volunteer sample of a defined sports cohort. Methods: The sample evaluated was from the multi-sport, multi-event and multi-nation World Masters Games, Sydney. The sample consisted of 2021 male athletes (mean age = 53.72 years; s.d. =+/−10.05) and 1935 female athletes (mean age = 49.39 years; s.d. =+/−9.15), a counterbalanced sample size. The data were collapsed into the original nine factor MOMS model using its scoring guidelines for each factor 1 to 7, with 1 = least important to 7 = most important reason. The nine factor scores for the participants for health orientation, weight concern, personal goal achievement, competition, recognition, affiliation, psychological coping, life meaning and self-esteem were utilised in the analysis to evaluate the derivation of the second order factors. The data set was analysed utilising IBM SPSS Statistics-Version 26 (IBM, 2019) by applying exploratory factor analysis with no constraints on derived factors, confirmatory factor analysis where the derived factors were constrained to the second order four factor model in MOMS, principal component analysis (PCA) as the method to derive factors, varimax rotation to achieve most interpretable solution and using factor loadings greater than five to be significant. The findings were exploratory non-constrained factor analysis produced two significant second order factors for males and one significant second order factor for females with all first order factors loading this one factor. Two second order factors for male sample, where psychological coping, self-esteem, life meaning, affiliation, recognition, competition on factor 1 and health orientation and weight concern with factor 2. The constrained confirmatory four factors model produced almost identical second order factor structure consistent with the MOMS in terms of health motives, achievement motives and psychological motives. Affiliation was linked to social motive consistently; however, the first order factor recognition was assigned to second order factors of psychological motives and achievement motives. The five factor constrained model varimax rotation produced the most meaningful and theoretical logical solution. Recognition was identified as significant unique factors in this model and this improved five factor second order model suggests a slight modification to the original second order factor structure of the MOMS instrument. The four and five factor models were almost identical in both genders unlike the exploratory second order factor solution. Implying the confirmatory five factor structure is common or homogenous in men and women master’s athletes utilised in this research and probably generalizable to similar international competing master’s athletes considering the large sample size for both genders, varied cultural and national diversity, the large cross-section of sports events sampled and the large adult age range in this study.
Details
- Title
- Validation of Second Order Factors Using Motivations of Marathoners Scales (MOMS) in Men and Women Masters Athletes
- Creators
- Ian Tim Heazlewood - Sport Science Institute (Australia, Sydney)Mike Climstein - Southern Cross UniversityJoe Walsh - Sport Science Institute (Australia, Sydney)
- Contributors
- Brian Moore (Editor) - University of WollongongElizabeth Murray (Editor) - Charles Sturt UniversityMatthew Winslade (Editor) - Charles Sturt UniversityLee Ming Tan (Editor) - East Asia Research
- Publication Details
- Applied Psychology Readings: Selected Papers from the Singapore Conference on Applied Psychology 2024, pp.59-82
- Conference
- Singapore Conference on Applied Psychology 2024 (Singapore, 05/12/2024–06/12/2024)
- Series
- Springer Proceedings in Behavioral & Health Sciences
- Publisher
- Springer Nature Singapore; Singapore
- Identifiers
- 991013328720102368
- Copyright
- © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025
- Academic Unit
- Human Sciences; Faculty of Health
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding