Identificação dos fatores motivacionais ocasionados aos idosos praticantes de hidroginástica do Projeto Minha Melhor Idade

Abstract

Physical activity is being increasingly performed by several crowds, among them the elderly. The number of elderly people in Brazil is increasing and, consequently, this public seeks physical activities inherent to their needs and desires, among them is aqua-aerobics This work aimed to answer the following problem: what factors influence the motivation of older practitioners in aqua-aerobics? In order to elucidate such questioning, this research investigated the aqua-aerobics students attendants in the project “My Best Age”, which is held at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte — UFRN, in the Physical Education Department — DEF, Natal / RN, Brazil. The objective of this work was to identify the motivational factors caused to the elderly people practicing aqua-aerobics in the project: "My Best Age". More specifically, the study sought to: point out the profile of the interviewees, according to age and sex; identify which motivational dimensions contained in the Motivation to the Regular Practice of Physical Activity Inventory (IMPRAF-54) are more relevant to the group of elderly people practicing aqua-aerobics in My Best Age Project; and verify the interviewees motivational profile according to the indicators of the Normative Tables from IMPRAF-54, by sex and age. IMPRAF-54 is based on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), containing 54 questions using the Likert scale, which has a value from 1 meaning "This motivates me very little" to 5 "This motivates me a lot". 29 individuals were interviewed, 7 men and 22 women, between 60 and 93 years, who generally identified motivational factors in the following decreasing order of motivation to practice regular physical activity: "Health", "Sociability", "Pleasure", "Stress Control", "Aesthetics" and "Competitiveness". In the verification of the interviewees motivational profile by sex and age, according to the indicators of the Normative Tables of IMPRAF-54, those surveyed obtained above-average rates in comparison to people of the same sex and the same age group. Finally, the results of this research should guide education professionals to establish mechanisms to attract older men to aqua-aerobics, as well as reinforce the motivations identified throughout the group, considering that each individual is important.