The purpose of this study was to provide useful data which help children participate in athletics continuously
through investigating causalities between tacit beliefs and intention of athletic participation in elementary
school children. The subjects were 611 elementary school children(boys: 300, girls: 311). The result of the
study showed that first, the boys' sub-factor in accelerating beliefs and athletic adjust ability appears higher
than the girls'. There, however, was no difference between actual beliefs and athletic participation. In the case
of 5th graders, their actual beliefs appeared higher, whereas lower in accelerating beliefs. The scales used in
this study were ability beliefs scale for Korean made by Park and Kim(2010), behavioral regulation scale was
made by Mullan, Markland & Ingledew(1997), and intention of athletic participation scale was made by
Kim(2012). For analyzing data, descriptive statistics and structure equation modeling were conducted. In the
result of descriptive analysis, boys showed higher incremental beliefs and all sub-factors of behavior regulation
than those of girls, more 5th grade students showed higher entity beliefs, external and introjected regulation,
and lower incremental beliefs and internal regulation than 4th graders. In the result of structure equation, the
model of this study(exogenous variables: entity and incremental beliefs, endogenous variables: behavioral
regulation and intention of athletic participation) was confirmed as theoretical model. In analysis of paths,
entity beliefs influenced negatively to internal regulation, and influenced positively external and introjected
regulation. Incremental beliefs influenced positively to internal regulation and intention of athletic participation,
and influenced negatively external and introjected regulation.