The Effects of Teachers’ Autonomy Support on Students’ Sense of Challenge and Creative Performance in Physical Education Classes

This study investigates how teachers’ autonomy support influences students’ sense of challenge and creative performance in physical education (PE) classes. A total of 336 middle and high school students in Gyeonggi Province, Korea, were recruited using convenience sampling. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (AMOS), including confirmatory factor analysis and bootstrapped mediation testing (5,000 resamples, bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals). The results showed that teachers’ autonomy support had a significant positive effect on students’ sense of challenge, and students’ sense of challenge significantly predicted creative performance. In addition, teachers’ autonomy support had a direct positive effect on creative performance. Bootstrapping indicated that the indirect effect of autonomy support on creative performance through sense of challenge was significant, supporting a partial mediation model.