Motivations for the practice of adventure and nature physical activities on young people

Despite the lack of prominence given to adventure and nature physical activities (ANPA) that involve direct contact with nature, there has been a growing interest in the integration of this type of activities in the schools' curriculum due to its' positive effects in students' physical, social and psychological development. In this context, the goal of this study is to examine what are the antecedents of public schools' students' choice to participate in this type of activities. To achieve this goal, we conducted a study (n=183, 3rd cycle of the Portuguese basic education) in which we compared the motivation of public school's students that offer and don't offer ANPAs in the engagement or disengagement in physical activities, using the Questionnaire of Motivation in Sport Activities (QMSA) and the Survey of Motivation for Absence of Sport Activities (SMASP). Our results suggest that students that practice ANPAs are more motivated to engage on the activities to develop their physical fitness and skill development. In relation to student's who don't practice, we notice that even to there are many that can do ANPAs in school don't practice mainly because the alleged lack of time.