146 | Chapter 15 occurred, was largely determined by the extent to which participants had a positive attitude towards practising sport and were motivated – intrinsically and/or extrinsically - to incorporate sport activities in their new everyday life. Some participants considered sport participation to be of great importance in their lives. They highly value sport, it is part of their lifestyle, and/or they enjoy it a lot (in most cases from an early age). These “sport-minded” participants put it high enough on their list of priorities and were intrinsically motivated to continue practising sport frequently after the occurrence of major life events. In the words of some participants: “I made a conscious decision to start studying and living on my own, as well as keep playing football besides school, because I have always wanted to do both. And maintain my relationship in the meantime, also an art, haha.” (Erik) “When I had the twins I had to stop running. I did walk the dog, so my condition was not that bad after the twins were born. After about six or eight weeks I started running again, because I really wanted to do something and it is just really nice, the feeling made me happy.” (Nina) Contrastingly, some not so “sport-minded” participants considered sport participation of minor importance after the occurrence of major life events and were not motivated enough, neither intrinsically nor extrinsically, to incorporate it structurally in their new daily lives: “I did not think about practising sport. I was busy with other things. Studying.” (Ivo) “I don’t have the energy and time for that anymore, now with a busy family and a busy job that I consciously chose for.” (Thijs) For many participants, extrinsic motivations were more apparent in their (re)considerations to participate in sport than intrinsic motivations. They experienced physical, mental and/or social benefits of and/or social support for practising sport, making it a meaningful and effective use of leisure time as well as an enjoyable leisure time activity (from the perspective of “sportminded” participants) or rather than “just” a – in some cases even unpleasant – pastime (from the perspective of not “sport-minded” participants). This seemed
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