Children's participation and motives in sport relative to their perceived athletic competence were investigated. One hundred and sixty-three grade 5 and 6 children from a suburban elementary school completed questionnaires designed to assess perceived athletic competence (PAC), sport participation, and participant motives. The sample, when divided into groups by level of sport involvement, revealed that participants at the higher levels had greater PAC than those at the lowest level. Boys and girls did not differ significantly in PAC. The children rated fun and skill/fitness as the most important motives for their participation in sport. When divided on the basis of PAC scores, the top one third of the sample scored significantly higher on all seven motives for participation in sport than the lower one third. Discriminant function analyses revealed that motives of challenge/team atmosphere and skill/fitness best differentiated the high from the low PAC groups. Girls participated to relax and have fun while boys may have been motivated to participate for the challenge and the team atmosphere. The results are interpreted in terms of school and community sport program development.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.68068 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Anderson-Howe, Heather J. |
| Contributors | Neil, Graham (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Physical Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001396215, proquestno: AAIMM94315, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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