Cheronne Nicholas, Jeni T. Pearce, Therese M. Pentony and Christine K. Pilz

This research was conducted during the taught unit ‘Exercise Psychology – HMSC236’ and was supervised by Dr. Stephen Burke.

Purposes for participating in sport are varied and specific to individuals. There have been many studies conducted that look into the purposes for participating in physical activity (Duda, 1989; Finkenberg & Moode, 1996; White, 1995). One of the most important issues facing sports researchers and exercise psychologists is why people participate in sport and what they believe the purpose of sport to be. It can be assumed that if more is understood about the purposes for participation of athletes it will enable coaches and other leaders to design sports programs and athletic experiences for the participants which fulfil their needs and contribute to their development. It is also important to investigate the reasons why the general population participates in physical activity as a step in developing ways to increase participation.

Other studies (Bounamano, Cei & Mussino, 1995; Dunleavy & Rees 1979; Gill, Gross & Huddleston, 1983; Klint & Weiss, 1987; Longhurst & Spink, 1987; Ryckman & Hamell, 1992; Wang & Wiese-Bjornstal, 1996) have conducted research on motives for participation in children and adults that can be related to the current study.

After reviewing the available literature it is hypothesised than when conducting a study of the Purpose of Sport on the following groups; School Males, School Females, Tertiary Males and Tertiary Females, the following will be found:

* Mastery/Cooperation will be considered the most important purpose of sport.

* Males and females will have no significant differences except in competitiveness, over both age groups, on what they believe the purpose of sport to be.

* The purpose of sport participation between tertiary and school students will not differ.

* There will be significant differences found when comparing recreational to competitive athletes in their purposes of sport.

Two groups of subjects were selected from the population. The first group contained Year 11 and 12 students, and the second group, students attending Tertiary education.

25 questionnaires completed by Year 11 and 12 students from a variety of high schools were included in the study (males n=12, females n=13) and 30 questionnaires completed by students enrolled in tertiary education were also included (males n=15, females n=15).

The mean age for Tertiary Females was 19.67, Tertiary Males = 19.73, School Females = 17.23 and School Males = 17.08.

The questionnaires were distributed to Year 11 and 12 students who obtained parental consent before returning the questionnaire to the researchers. The voluntary questionnaires were also distributed to students undertaking Tertiary Education and were completed in the presence of the researchers. The questionnaires took approximately 10 minutes to complete. The participants were informed that results would remain confidential and that there were no known risks to the health and well being of the participants.

Questionnaire: A 46-item questionnaire was obtained from Duda’s (1989) article Relationship between Task and Ego Orientation and Intrinsic Motivation in Sport. This was derived from the Purpose of Sport Questionnaire (Duda, 1989). Students indicated their beliefs on what "a very important thing sport should do is" using a 5-point Likert scale anchored by strongly agree (5) and strongly disagree (1).

The 7 Factors on which the questions were based were:

1. Mastery/Cooperation

2. Physically Active Lifestyle

3. Good Citizen

4. Competitiveness

5. High Status Career

6. Enhance Self-esteem

7. Social Status/Getting Ahead

Participants were also asked to provide background information (eg. age, sex, school or university year, name of school or university, amount of physical activity each week, type of physical activity) to be included when determining the results.

The groups analysed were as follows:

• male (school + tertiary students) vs female (school + tertiary students)
• school (male + female) vs tertiary (male + female)
• tertiary (female) vs tertiary (male)
• tertiary (female) vs school (female)
• tertiary (female) vs school (male)
• tertiary (male) vs school (female)
• tertiary (male) vs school (male)
• school (female) vs school (male)
• competitive vs recreational

An Independent T-test was performed to determine differences in motives for participating in sports between the two groups tested. Each factor was analysed separately to establish whether a significant difference was present at the 0.05 level. Results are summarised in Table 1.

It was found that there was no significant difference between School and Tertiary Education students at the 0.05 level for any of the 7 factors.

Significant differences were found for Factor 1 (Mastery/Cooperation) - p < 0.05 - and Factor 2 (Physically Active Lifestyle) - p < 0.05 - at the 0.05 level. However there was no significant difference between males and females for the remaining five Factors. Results are tabulated in Table 2.

Factor 2 (Physically Active Lifestyle) was found to be the most significant factor when examining the differences between males and females. It was observed that females rated both Factor 1 (Mastery/Cooperation) and Factor 2 (Physically Active Lifestyle) higher than males.

It was found that people involved in Competitive (Organised) Sports rated Factor 1 (Mastery/Cooperation) significantly higher than people involved in recreational sports.

The results can be found in Table 3.

Tertiary Females rated Factor 1 (Mastery/Cooperation) and Factor 2 (Physically Active Lifestyle) significantly higher than Tertiary Males. Tertiary Males rated Factor 4 (Competitiveness) significantly higher than Tertiary Females. No significant differences were found for any Factor between the two specified groups.

Tertiary Females rated Factor 1 (Mastery/Cooperation) and Factor 2 (Physically Active Lifestyle) significantly higher than School Males at the 0.05 level.

School Females rated Factor 1 (Mastery/Cooperation), Factor 2 (Physically Active Lifestyle), and Factor 3 (Good Citizen) significantly higher than Tertiary Males.

No significant differences were found between Tertiary Males and School Males for any of the seven Factors.

It was seen that School Females rated Factor 1 (Mastery/Cooperation) and Factor 2 (Physically Active Lifestyle) significantly higher than School Males.

Participation motives in sport have focussed mainly on school students participating in school or organised sport. Many focused on differences between gender in competitive and organised sport. (Blair, 1985; Duda, 1989; Finkenberg & Moode, 1996; Mathes & Battista, 1985; Ryckman & Hamel, 1995; Wang & Weise-Bjornstal, 1996; White, 1995).

It was found in the study that the most highly rated of the seven factors amongst all groups was Mastery/Cooperation. Hence, the hypothesis that Mastery/Cooperation will be considered the most important purpose of sport was accepted. Many studies found similar results concluding that skill improvement and mastery was the most important purpose to sports participants (Finkenberg & Moode, 1996; Longhurst & Spink, 1987).

Significant difference was found when comparing participation between Tertiary and School students (male and female). Tertiary Females rated Mastery/Cooperation and Physically Active Lifestyle significantly higher than School Males. Similarly when comparing School Females to Males attending Tertiary Education, School Females rated Mastery/Cooperation, Physically Active Lifestyle and Good Citizen significantly higher than Tertiary Males. Evidence to support these results can be seen in work compiled by Gill et al (1983), Longhurst & Spink (1987) and Wang et al (1996).

Tertiary Males rated Competitiveness significantly higher than Tertiary Females. According to Scott and West (1990) the differences in males and females can be attributed to the fact that traditionally from an early age females are encouraged to play less competitive sports which focus on recreational aspects of participation. Compared to males who are traditionally encouraged to participate in more competitive sports.

Finally there was a significant difference within Mastery/Cooperation when comparing recreational and competitive sports involvement that the participants take part in. The results found in the present studied indicated that competitive participants believed that sport should enhance Skill Mastery and Cooperation. Battista (1990) states that an important thing that organised (competitive) sport should emphasise is the importance of skill mastery rather than the idea that winning is everything.

CONCLUSION:

The most notable thing from the study was the importance put on mastery/cooperation by youth. As both sexes wanted to learn and improve their skills in a social environment this is something that program organisers, coaches, teachers and others involved with youth should not lose sight of. Young athletes have multiple motives for sports participation and training must satisfy this diversity. It is important that they can use these findings to create a sporting situation which will motivate and be appreciated by the participant.

Email correspondence: S.Burke@mackillop.acu.edu.au