Toward Brief Tools Assessing Motivation for Exercise: Rationale and Development of a Six- and 12-Item Version of the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise 3 (BREQ3) Questionnaire

The Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire 3 (BREQ3) is the most widely used instrument to measure exercise motivation under the self-determination theory (SDT) framework. It consists of 23 items measuring the six behavioral regulations advanced within SDT (intrinsic, integrated, identified, introjected, external, and amotivated) and has been used to track exercise motivation in young, old, active, and nonactive samples all over the world. In recent years, the instrument has been incorporated into applied and intervention-based research and due to limited resources and recruitment challenges in certain populations, assessments using the BREQ3 may need to be done more efficiently. As such, there is a need to develop shorter versions of the BREQ3 that enhance flexibility in research. In Studies 1 and 2, we created a 12-item BREQ3-12 (two items per behavior regulation) and a six-item BREQ3-6 (single item per behavior regulation). Then, we demonstrated the factor structure was commensurate with SDT and evidence of score reliability and criterion validity aligned with the full 23-item version (BREQ3-23). In Study 3, participants were randomly assigned to complete the BREQ3-6, BREQ3-12, or the BREQ3-23 and we replicated the results supporting that the factor structure, reliability, and validity of scores derived from the BREQ3-6 and BREQ3-12 aligned with scores from the BREQ3-23. Overall, the findings provide preliminary support for two shorter forms of the BREQ3-23 that may be useful for research in applied settings, interventions, or tracking changes in motives over time using multiwave, longitudinal research designs.