European Journal of Physiotherapy

ISSN: 2167-9169 (Print) 2167-9177 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/iejp20

Running motivations within different populations

of Chilean urban runners

M. Besomi, J. Leppe, M. J. Martínez, M. I. Enríquez, M. V. Mauri-Stecca & P. S.

Sizer

To cite this article: M. Besomi, J. Leppe, M. J. Martínez, M. I. Enríquez, M. V. Mauri-Stecca &

P. S. Sizer (2017) Running motivations within different populations of Chilean urban runners,
European Journal of Physiotherapy, 19:sup1, 8-11, DOI: 10.1080/21679169.2017.1381317

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/21679169.2017.1381317

Published online: 14 Oct 2017.

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EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOTHERAPY, 2017
VOL. 19, NO. S1, 8–11
https://doi.org/10.1080/21679169.2017.1381317
ABSTRACT
Running motivations within different populations of Chilean urban runners
M. Besomia , J. Leppea, M. J. Mart
ıneza, M. I. Enr
ıqueza, M. V. Mauri-Steccaa,b and P. S. Sizera,b
a
School of Physical Therapy, Facultad de Medicina, Cl
ınica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile; bCenter for Rehabilitation
Research, School of Health Professions, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, USA
Background
In the past decade, the number of urban runners has consid-
erably increased, specially considering its health-related ben-
efits [1,2]. In Chile, running has been reported as the third
most commonly used physical activity (11.9%) after soccer
and physical fitness among physically active adults [3].
Motivation, a driving force to achieve personal goals [4], has
been linked to exercise adherence and to the capacity of
keeping a healthy life [5,6]. Many investigations have been
conducted to study running motivations across runners [7–9]
through different domains, such as health, personal goals,
self-esteem, competition; founding a tendency from internal
towards external factors among different experienced runners
[10,11].
Even though running is an easily accessible activity, the
knowledge of underlying motivational factors among runners
could enhance promotion of physical activity participation,
regarding that urban life may reduce an individual’s motiv-
ation for pursuing a better physical lifestyle. Therefore, the
purpose of this study was to analyse motivations for sustain-
ing a consistent running routine in different runner popula-
tions from Santiago de Chile using the Motivations of
Marathoners Scales (MOMS-34). This is the first study examin-
ing the specific values of motivation in different runner
groups in South America.
Methods
A cross-sectional study design using an online web-based
survey was carried out. Urban runners over 18 years old were
recruited from different sources in Santiago, including three
municipal parks, two running races and four running clubs
during October of 2015, collecting the emails of each inter-
ested participant. The parks were chosen randomly according
to three different socioeconomic levels, and the sampling
from the other two sources was non-probabilistic. The sam-
ple size was calculated expecting a 15% of marathon runners
(according to the record from Santiago’s Marathon event in
2014 and 2015), with a confident level of 95% and signifi-
cance set at 5%, estimating a sample size of 196 runners.
The online survey was delivered to all recruited runners
(n ¼ 517) using the Survey Monkey system to their email address.
The survey collected information on: socio-demographics
CONTACT Manuela Besomi Molina/mbesomim@udd.cl
Santiago, Chile
ß 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
characteristics (sex, age and educational level), health (Body
Mass Index and previous running-related injury in the last
12 months), training factors (weekly volume, frequency and
hours of running training), characteristics associated to
practice (years of running experience and runner’s self-per-
ception: novice, recreational, track runner, road long dis-
tance runner, marathon runner, ultra-marathon runner and
trail-runner) [12] and running motivation based on the 7
dimensions of the Motivations of Marathoners Scales
(MOMS-34) [11], validated in its Spanish version [13]. This
scale consists of 34 questions, grouped into 4 general cate-
gories: (1) psychological, (2) achievement, (3) social and (4)
physical health reasons, which are divided into 7 specific
dimensions: personal goals and competition, health-orienta-
tion, weight, recognition, affiliation, psychological goal, and
meaning of life and self-esteem. Each dimension is reported
on a 7-point Likert scale, where the subjects had to score
from minor to major importance the motivation to run.
The motivational analysis was made according to sex and
the runner’s self-perception previously described. Descriptive
statistics and Spearman’s correlational measurements were
analysed using STATA13.0. This study was approved by the
Scientific Ethics Committee of Universidad del Desarrollo,
Chile.
Results
The survey response rate was 46.6% (n ¼ 241), where 47.3%
were females, with a median age of 28 years (Interquartile
Range [IQR] 23–39), Body Mass Index of 28 kg/m2 (IQR
21.2–25.1), and 49.8% of runners reported more than 18
years of formal education. A previous running-related injury
was reported in 54.4% of participants, occurring most fre-
quently at the knee (25.8%) and ankle/foot (16.3%) segments.
From the total of responses, 43.4% were self-reported as
long distance runners (10–21km). Table 1 shows the descrip-
tion of socio-demographics, health and self-perception char-
acteristics by sex.
Participants reported a median training frequency of 3
days/week (IQR 3–4), a median accumulative training volume
of 30km/week (IQR 15–47) and a median of 3 years of run-
ning experience (IQR 2–5).
According to MOMS-34, the highest scores (>5 points)
in both sexes were reported in the ‘Health-orientation’ and
School of Physical Therapy, Facultad de Medicina, Cl
ınica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo,
 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOTHERAPY 9

Table 1. Description of socio-demographics, health and self-perception characteristics by sex.

n Total Males (n ¼ 127) Females (n ¼ 114) p value
Age (years)a 241 28 (23–39) 31 (23-40) 25.5 (23–35) 0.032
BMI (kg/m2)a 241 28 (23–39) 24.1 (22.5–25.9) 22.3 (20.5–24.7) 0.0001
Educational levelb 241 127 114 0.728
<8 years 4 (1.7) 1 (0.8) 3 (2.6)
Between 8–12 years 7 (2.9) 4 (3.1) 3 (2.6)
Between 12–18 years 110 (45.6) 58 (45.7) 52 (45.7)
>18 years 120 (49.8) 64 (50.4) 56 (49.1)
Previous injury (12 months)b,c 131 0.192
Ankle/foot 41 (31.2) 25 (39.0) 16 (23.9)
Lower leg 28 (21.4) 12 (18.8) 16 (23.9)
Knee 63 (48.1) 33 (51.6) 30 (44.8)
Tight 23 (17.6) 10 (15.6) 13 (19.4)
Hip/pelvis 23 (17.6) 9 (14.1) 14 (20.9)
Lower back 23 (17.6) 10 (15.6) 13 (19.4)
Self-perception of runner [12]b 221 116 105 0.001
Novice 15 (6.8) 8 (6.9) 7 (6.7)
Recreational 45 (20.4) 17 (14.7) 28 (26.7)
Track 5 (2.3) 0 (0) 5 (4.7)
Road: long distance (10 km 42 km) 96 (43.4) 45 (38.8) 51 (48.6)
Marathon (42 km) 35 (15.8) 29 (25.0) 6 (5.7)
Ultra-marathon (>42 km) 4 (1.8) 2 (1.7) 2 (1.9)
Trail-runner/cross-country 21 (9.5) 15 (12.9) 6 (5.7)
Data presented with median (P50) and Interquartile Range (IQR/P25-75)a, and absolute frequency and percentages (%)b.
BMI: Body Mass Index; km: kilometres.
p value < .05.
a
Mann–Whitney test.
b
Chi-2 test.
c
Multiple response.

Table 2. Motivations of urban runners according to the Motivation of Marathoners Scales (MOMS-34) by sex.
n Total Males (n ¼ 118) Females (n ¼ 106) p value
Health-orientation 224 5.361.4 5.361.4 5.461.5 .414
5.8 (4.5-6.5) 5.5 (4.5-6.5) 5.9 (4.5-6.8)
Meaning of life and self-esteem 224 5.161.4 4.961.5 5.461.4 .017
5.5 (4.3-6.3) 5.0 (4.0-6.2) 5.7 (4.5-6.5)
Personal goals and competition 224 4.761.4 4.861.5 4.561.4 .076
4.8 (3.5-5.8) 5.1 (3.5-6.0) 4.7 (3.5-5.7)
Weight 224 3.961.8 3.561.8 4.261.7 .008
4.0 (2.3-5.3) 3.2 (2.0-5.0) 4.3 (2.7-5.7)
Psychological goals 224 4.061.9 4.061.8 3.962.0 .842
4.0 (2.3-5.3) 4.3 (2.7-5.3) 4.0 (2.0-5.7)
Affiliation 224 3.561.5 3.461.5 3.661.6 .342
3.4 (2.3-4.7) 3.3 (2.2-4.5) 3.7 (2.5-4.8)
Recognition 224 1.961.1 2.061.3 1.861.0 .760
1.3 (1.0-2.3) 1.5 (1.0-2.7) 1.3 (1.0-2.2)
Data presented with median (P50) and Interquartile Range (IQR/P25–75) and mean 6 standard deviation.
MOMS-34: Motivations of Marathoners Scales – 34.
p value < .05, Mann–Whitney test.

‘Meaning-of-life and self-esteem’ dimensions, along with Discussion

‘Overcoming-personal-goals and competition’ in males. The
lowest score for both sexes was ‘Recognition’. Table 2 shows
the motivations of urban runners according to the
Motivation of Marathoners Scales (MOMS-34) by sex. A posi-
tive weak correlation was observed between motivation-ori-
ented-to-competition and training-volume (rho ¼ 0.26;
p < .05), along with a negative weak correlation between
motivation-oriented-to-competition and age (rho¼ 0.27;
p < .05). When analysing among different long distance run-
ners, marathon, ultra-marathon and trail-runners exhibited
‘Meaning-of-life and self-esteem’ and ‘Psychological-goals’ as
their main motivational dimensions. Figure 1 shows the radial
graph of each score dimensions of MOMS-34 by type of
runner.
Runners motivations reported in this study were consistent
with other findings, even within sex differences [8,13,14].
Health-orientation was the dimension with the highest score
and presents a great opportunity for promotion and encour-
agement to maintain adherence to exercise. On the other
hand, recognition was always the dimension with the lowest
score, either by sex or type of runner, which implies that
there is a low social motivation.
Different from previous studies, our research included a
broad spectrum of runner types, and not only marathon run-
ners [15]. The volume and frequency of training as well as
the years of running experience were variables that contrib-
uted to the internal consistency of the self-classification,
10 M. BESOMI ET AL.
Figure 1. Radial graph for each dimension’s score of the MOMS-34 by type of runner [12].
since less experienced runners (such as novice and recre-
ational) reported lower years and weekly training workload.
Also, more experienced runners (such as marathon, ultra-
marathon and trail runners) reported the highest volumes,
training frequency and years of practice. This internal consist-
ency supports the heterogeneity of runner type and justifies
the study of its motivations, as well as previous results of
predictive models [16].
The main motivation for novice, recreational, track and
road long distance runners was health-orientation; for mara-
thon and trail runners was meaning of life and self-esteem,
while for ultra-marathon runners was both psychological
goals and meaning of life and self-esteem. The dominance of
psychological reasons within this last population is consistent
with the findings of Ogles et al. [10], where motivation has a
changing pattern within the development of the marathon
runner’s life that allows them to maintain this activity, which
is associated with a great effort and sacrifice.
It is important to note that personal goals-competition
dimension is one of the main motivations reported, in add-
ition to those described above, and it is presented transver-
sally among different runners. This is relevant for Chilean
population, since possible strategies of adherence to exercise
and promotion of physical activity could be approached
through events or competitions of running and trail running,
which would allow participation through accessible circuits
and distances with a global interest.
Finally, our results could guide further studies to establish
a balanced or quota sampling to identify greater representa-
tiveness of different types of runners, since their motivations
are different.
Conclusion
The most important motivational dimension for all runners
was ‘Health-orientation’ and the least one was ‘Recognition’,
finding some differences across runner’s population.
Additionally, goals and competition-based motivation
appears particularly important to males.
Implications
Runner’s motivations are important for maintaining a healthy
lifestyle. Knowing their habits and behaviours could
help health-related professionals in choosing strategies that
promote physical activity through running.
Acknowledgements
This work was unfunded, but we acknowledge to the School of Physical
Therapy of Universidad del Desarrollo, for its support through the
process.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
ORCID
M. Besomi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-4561
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