This study aimed to capture the multidimensionality of adolescents’ motivation in the physical education (PE) setting, within self-determination theory, by employing self-organizing maps (SOM) analysis. Particularly, it examined the topological relationships among students’ basic psychological needs satisfaction, their perception of more or less self-determined motivation and the affective and behavioural consequences in PE lessons across several sociodemographic variables. A nationally representative sample of 3029 Spanish students (51% girls), aged 12 to 18 years, was surveyed. SOM mapped well-defined students’ profiles that embraced interrelatedly a considerable number of students’ motivational characteristics. Four target profiles, out of 10, were explored. The first two profiles, highly motivated to be active girls and boys, mainly experienced senses of self-determination, but also controlled reasons for participating in PE lessons, high perceived competence, relatedness and autonomy fulfilment, perceived exerted effort and satisfaction. However, the reluctance to be physically active presented two gendered motivational profiles. Barely motivated to be active girls showed the lowest levels of self-determined motivation, including introjected regulation, low perceptions of competence, autonomy, relatedness, and dissatisfaction in PE. Vaguely motivated to be active boys revealed that despite their perceptions of competence the neglect of the other two psychological needs was more likely to determine a controlled motivation and, consequently, maladaptive outcomes. SOM proved to be a more robust and accurate clustering technique than the k-means algorithm and helped to portray and visualize the complexity behind the decision to become an active person considering the motivational processes in PE. Implications are provided for practitioners.

本研究旨在通过采用自组织图 (SOM) 分析，在自决理论范围内捕捉青少年在体育教育 (PE) 环境中的多维动机。特别是，它检查了学生的基本心理需求满意度、他们对或多或少的自主动机的感知以及体育课中跨几个社会人口变量的情感和行为后果之间的拓扑关系。对 3029 名年龄在 12 至 18 岁的西班牙学生（51% 为女孩）的全国代表性样本进行了调查。SOM 绘制了定义明确的学生档案，其中包含大量学生的动机特征。探索了 10 个目标配置文件中的 4 个。前两个简介，非常有动力成为活跃的女孩和男孩，主要经历了自我决定感，但也有参与体育课的受控原因、高感知能力、相关性和自主性满足感、感知到的付出努力和满意度。然而，不愿意进行身体活动呈现出两种性别动机特征。几乎没有积极性成为活跃的女孩表现出最低水平的自主动机，包括内向调节、对能力、自主性、相关性和对体育不满意的低感知。动机模糊的积极男孩表明，尽管他们对能力的看法，忽视其他两种心理需求更有可能决定受控的动机，从而导致适应不良的结果。事实证明，SOM 是一种比 k-means 算法更强大、更准确的聚类技术，并有助于描绘和可视化考虑 PE 中的激励过程而决定成为积极的人背后的复杂性。为从业者提供了启示。