The purpose of this study is to investigate differences in the team identity - team ties, team affect, team centrality-in physical education class and innate psychological needs - autonomy, competence, relatedness - according to gender, level of school and team entitativity. Specific research questions are as follows. First, it is to verify the causal model between the team identity in physical education class and innate psychological needs. Second, in the influence of the team identity in physical education class on innate psychological needs, it is to investigate the moderating effect according to gender, level of school, and team entitativity. Based on this, the research hypothesis was established as follows. First, the team identity in physical education class and innate psychological needs will show differences according to the gender, level of school, and team entitativity. Second, when the team identity in physical education class increases, the innate psychological needs will increase. Third, gender, level of school, and team entitativity will show a moderating effect on the relationship between the team identity in physical education class and innate psychological needs.
The data was collected through online survey for 810 students from middle and high school located in Gyeongnam. The results were derived through analysis. The results were as follows. First, depends on gender, team centrality of team identity factors and the need for relatedness of innate psychological needs showed difference. In terms of level of school, team ties and need for relatedness showed a significant difference. The result also showed that the level of team entitativity affected on all factors of team identity and the innate psychological needs. Second, among the factors of team identity in the physical education class, the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness increased when team ties increased. When the team centrality increased, need for competence increased. Third, the negative effect of the team affect on the need for relatedness had stronger influence on the high team entitativity group than the low one.
In conclusion, physical education teachers should design class that can increase the team identity. It will improve students' intrinsic motivation, which will encourage students' participation in physical education class.