1. Introduction
Regular participation in physical activity is essential to children and adolescents’ health and wellbeing. However, approximately 76% of US children and adolescents do not engage in the recommended amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) of 1 h daily [
1]. Such insufficiency contributes to the obesity epidemic of childhood and adolescence, which is linked to negative health outcomes such as type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, and cancers [
2]. Furthermore, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in physical activity participation and health status have been documented [
3,
4]. This line of work, however, has paid little attention to a special population—at-risk children and adolescents. In this study, we focused on at-risk boys and examined their expectancy-value motivation in relation to physical activity- and health-related outcomes in a summer camp. Findings of this study may help physical educators, youth development personnel, and health professionals design effective intervention strategies to increase physical activity participation among this underrepresented group.
1.1. At-Risk Children and Adolescents
At-risk children and adolescents are considered those who are affected by risk factors, including poverty, insecurity, English illiteracy, and/or low parental education [
5]. They are disproportionately racial and ethnic minorities, underserved, and come from low-income families. The high vulnerability of at-risk children and adolescents to these risk factors and resulting academic, social, behavioral, and health consequences have been well documented. A consensus is that at-risk children and adolescents are less likely to be physically active and more likely to have health problems. For example, disparities in MVPA participation are observed between White, Hispanic, and Black youths, with White youths having higher participation (49%) than Black (42%) and Hispanic (45%) youths [
1]. The 2003 and 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health data revealed that, from 2003 to 2007, there was a 10% increase in obesity for all children and adolescents (ages 10–17) while there was a 23–33% increase for those in low education and income households and higher unemployed households [
4]. Clearly, at-risk children and adolescents should be the center of concern in our efforts to address disparities in physical activity and health.
1.2. Expectancy-Value Motivation
To regularly participate in physical activity, children and adolescents must be motivated to do so. This is because motivation is a driving force for people to initiate and sustain effort toward desired outcomes [
5]. In both theoretical and empirical works, expectancy-value motivation has been found to be significantly related to children and adolescents’ affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes in a variety of settings, including physical activity/physical education [
6].
The expectancy-value model consists of two components: expectancy beliefs and task values [
7,
8]. Expectancy beliefs refer to how capable they believe themselves to be in succeeding at a task, and task values are defined as the degree to which they value the activity. Task values consist of four subcomponents: attainment value or importance, intrinsic value or interest, utility value or usefulness, and cost. Because the first three task values are the most researched in the literature, we focused on them in the present study. Importance deals with beliefs about the importance of doing well on a given task, interest refers to the enjoyment derived from engaging in the task, and usefulness concerns how useful the performer perceives the task undertaken. Compared to importance and interest, which are more intrinsic to the performer, usefulness is more of extrinsic motivation [
8].
The literature shows that children and adolescents’ expectancy-value motivation (expectancy beliefs and task values) is significantly related to important outcomes in physical activity/physical education settings, such as physical activity engagement, effort and persistence, task performance, and intention for future physical activity participation [
6]. For example, Xiang and colleagues [
9] reported that intrinsic and importance values positively predicted fourth graders’ intentions for future participation in the physical education of running, while expectancy beliefs positively predicted their performance of a 1-mile run test. Chen and Chen [
10] observed that ninth graders who had a higher level of expectancy beliefs and intrinsic value tended to be more physically active in physical education classes. A positive association between expectancy beliefs and after-school physical activity participation also emerged in a sample of physical education students in grades three to five [
11]. However, little work has been conducted to examine whether the relationships between expectancy-value motivation and physical activity-related outcomes observed with general populations also exist among at-risk children and adolescents. In this study, we specifically focused on the three outcomes that most often appeared in the literature, namely, effort, intention for future physical activity participation, and cardiovascular fitness, and described them below.
1.3. Effort, Intention for Future Physical Activity Participation, and Cardiovascular Fitness
To benefit from regular physical activity, children and adolescents need to invest effort. Effort refers to the overall amount of energy spent during physical activity participation. It is an outcome highly valued in our society. Research indicates that students who are willing to put forth great effort or work hard tend to perform well, achieve success, and benefit most from participating in physical activity/physical education [
12,
13].
Another outcome critical to our understanding of physical activity participation among at-risk children and adolescents is their intention to participate in physical activity in the future, on the grounds that individuals’ behavioral intentions are highly related to actual achievement behaviors [
14]. For example, Xiang et al. [
15] reported that, across the fifth- and sixth-grade data, students’ intention for future participation in running was significantly correlated with their 1-mile run test performance. That is, students with a stronger intention to participate in future running activities completed the 1-mile run test in less time than their peers who did not have such a strong intention.
Finally, cardiovascular fitness is considered an important predictor of physical and mental health in children and adolescents. It refers to the overall aerobic capacity of the cardiovascular, respiratory, and muscular systems during extended physical activity participation. High cardiovascular fitness tends to result in multiple benefits, including lower risk for cardiovascular disease, improved academic performance, and higher levels of psychological well-being [
16,
17]. However, there is little empirical evidence for the effect of expectancy-value motivation on this important health indicator. Given the significance of cardiovascular fitness and research vacancy, it is important for us to examine how expectancy-value motivation would be associated with cardiovascular fitness among at-risk adolescent boys in the present study.
1.4. The Present Study
Based on the reasons stated above, the purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between expectancy-value motivation and physical activity- and health-related outcomes among a group of at-risk children and adolescents. Identifying the relationships between these physical activity- and health-related variables not only adds to the body of knowledge about research on underserved populations, but also provides an expanded understanding of what is behind participants’ health behavior choices and outcomes, as well as informs physical educators, youth development personnel, and health service providers about how to design and deliver effective intervention strategies, especially for underserved populations, to address health disparities.
In the present study, we specifically focused on the following three research questions: (1) How would the components of expectancy-valve motivation (i.e., expectancy beliefs, importance, interest, and usefulness) each predict the participants’ effort during their physical activity sessions? (2) How would each expectancy-value motivation component predict their intention for future physical activity participation after the participants’ camp time? And (3) how would each expectancy-value motivation component predict the participants’ cardiovascular fitness levels at the end of the camp time? Based on the theorization of expectancy-value motivation and the literature, we hypothesized that each component of expectancy-value motivation would positively predict the participants’ effort, intention for future physical activity participation, and cardiovascular fitness.
4. Discussion
Regular physical activity participation and health are critical topics among children and adolescents. Although there is plenty of research on these two topics, studies devoted to underrepresented populations are scarce. Especially rare are such investigations through the lens of the expectancy-value model [
7,
8]. To address these concerns, we examined how expectancy-value motivation would affect physical activity- and health-related outcomes among a group of at-risk boys in this study. Overall, we found expectancy beliefs, importance, and interest emerged as significant predictors to respective outcome variables. The results partially supported our hypothesis that the components of expectancy-value motivation would each positively predict the boys’ effort, intention for future physical activity participation, and cardiovascular fitness.
Research question 1 asks how the components of expectance-value motivation would each predict the participants’ effort during their physical activity sessions in the sports camp. Consistent with Gao et al. [
27] but contrary to Cox and Whaley [
28] and Xiang, McBride and Bruene [
18], we did not find the boys’ expectancy beliefs to have any effect on effort. Just as in the three studies [
18,
27,
28], our study did not find the predictability of usefulness to effort among these boys, either. Partially supporting our hypothesis and consistent with the theorization [
7,
8], the boys who valued their activities as important and interesting invested effort during camp activities. This result, however, is contradictory to what was found in the literature—Cox and Whaley [
28], Xiang, McBride and Bruene [
18], and Gao [
19]. Neither of these studies identified a statistically significant effect from importance or interest to effort. This might be due to different groups being sampled in these studies. In Cox and Whaley [
28], participants were high school varsity basketball players, while in Xiang, McBride and Bruene [
18] and Gao [
19], participants ranged from kindergarteners to middle schoolers. In the present study, participants were exclusively underserved boys. Facing risks factors at school and home, they might deem the variety of physical activities offered in the sports camp especially important and interesting, and therefore were willing to actively take part in them. Further studies with qualitative design, however, may be done to verify this assumption.
Regarding research question 2, we asked if the components of expectancy-value motivation would each predict participants’ intention for future physical activity participation after their camp time. Consistent with Xiang et al. [
9,
18] and Gao and Xiang [
29] but different from Gao, Lodewyk and Zhang [
27], our study did not find the boys’ expectancy beliefs or usefulness predicted their intention for future participation. Our study also confirmed Xiang et al. [
9,
18] in that importance did not predict intention for future participation, but this is not the case in Gao and Xiang [
29] and Gao, Lodewyk and Zhang [
27]. Again, these mixed results might be attributed to different samples and different settings. As explained before, our sample was exclusively at-risk boys, while samples from other studies were all school students including both genders and with various backgrounds. Residing in a structured sports camp may induce a different experience from naturally attending a public school [
27,
29]. Hence, further studies based on the expectancy-value model may provide a clearer view of the relationships between these components and intention for future physical activity participation. Corroborating the literature [
9,
18,
27,
29], our study revealed that interest also emerged as a single significant predictor of intention for future physical activity participation. This result informs health professionals interested in addressing physical activity-related health disparities among children and adolescents that, regardless of participant characteristics and settings, a higher level of interest can always lead to a stronger intention for future participation in physical activity. When examining the relationships among motivation, physical activity, and health outcomes, researchers may as well consider including this significant variable (i.e., interest) in their studies.
Our results concerning research question 3 partially support our hypothesis, in that only expectancy beliefs positively predicted cardiovascular fitness, while task values did not affect this outcome variable. Nevertheless, this finding is entirely aligned with the literature (e.g., [
29,
30]). Particularly, Gao [
19], Gao, Lodewyk and Zhang [
27], and Zhu and Chen [
30] used the PACER test as the indicator of participants’ cardiovascular fitness, and they all found expectancy beliefs positively predicted PACER test results. This is identical to our finding that at-risk boys with higher expectancy beliefs tended to run more laps. Because the PACER test is a performance-related task, it is understandable that when feeling capable and competent, the boys tended to demonstrate their capability and competence as well as their desire to succeed during the PACER test. This predictability of expectancy beliefs also holds true to other performance-related tasks such as running [
9,
18] and weightlifting [
29]. When it comes to task values, however, these variables do not seem to affect task performance at all. Our study, together with other empirical studies [
18,
19,
30], found that neither importance, interest, nor usefulness had any effect on cardiovascular fitness. This may be traced to the theorization of the expectancy-value model [
7,
8], where task values were conceptualized to influence individuals’ choice of behavior rather than task performance. Note that, although often correlated with most variables, usefulness has consistently been found to be a non-predictor for physical activity- and health-related outcomes. Particularly in our study, at-risk children and adolescents seemed not to perceive how the PACER test processes utility values as indicators of their effort or cardiovascular fitness. Moreover, because usefulness is often associated with extrinsic motivation [
8], physical educators, youth development personnel, and health service providers are not suggested as promoting the utility values of physical activity among participants.
Although the present study provides a unique perspective of the relationships among expectancy-value motivation and physical activity- and health-related outcomes among an underrepresented population, there are a few areas of concern we would like to acknowledge before generalizing our findings. First, our sample only includes at-risk boys. When comparing our results to those of other studies, we caution scholars to consider gender differences and participants’ background information (e.g., socioeconomic status). For future research, we suggest including both boys and girls to make a better representation of underserved populations. Second, the subjective, self-rated responses to the questionnaire may not truthfully reflect the participants’ effort. For further studies, assessment tools such as accelerometers and ergometers may be used to provide more objective and accurate measurement. At the same time, we noticed that there is still a dearth of studies based on the expectancy-value model within the field of physical education/physical activity and sports. Therefore, we call for more attempts to employ the expectancy-value model to guide future research, so that we may have a more comprehensive understanding of how each component of the model works for physical activity- and health-related outcomes. So doing may enhance the efficacy of our effort to address physical activity-related health disparities in children and adolescents.
Despite these limitations, the results of our study still offer insightful implications for practice. Based on the positive relationships between expectancy beliefs and health-related outcomes in our study, and the previous studies, it seems always conducive to strengthen participants’ expectancy beliefs when completing performance-related tasks. Therefore, for this particular camp, we recommend coaches to provide at-risk boys with encouragement, positive feedback, and inclusive activities for everyone to feel supported and experience success. Regarding task values, importance and interest should be emphasized. Camp coaches can explain to the boys why an activity is important and the benefits of participation before starting an activity session. This way, these boys may be more willing to to engage in the activity. Making activities fun and interesting is critical to the boys’ intrinsic desire of continued physical activity even after their current participation, which, in the long run, can lead to a physically active and healthy lifestyle. When it comes to similar physical activity promotion or intervention settings, physical educators, youth development personnel, and health service providers may follow the same recommendations to make their promotion/intervention more effective. In addition, we reserve our recommendations on advocating usefulness, because of its association with extrinsic motivation and its always being an ineffective motivating factor across studies, including the present study.