Title

Sources of sport enjoyment for African-American college students attending an historically Black college

Date of Award

2001

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Teaching and Leadership

Advisor(s)

D. Bruce Carter

Keywords

Sport, African-American, College students, Historically Black

Subject Categories

African American Studies | Arts and Humanities | Curriculum and Instruction | Education | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies

Abstract

Enjoyment is an important part of sport and is considered the main reason that children as well as adults continue to participate in sport, physical, and recreational activities. The factors that make sport enjoyable are less well understood. One way of understanding fun in physical activity is through the concept of Sport Enjoyment, which includes intrinsic, extrinsic, achievement, and social/non-achievement aspects of sport. This study examined the sources of sport enjoyment for African American college students participating in team sports and attending an Historically Black College/University. Additionally, expected continuation in an activity, the relationship between the achievement and non-achievement sources of sport enjoyment, and gender differences in sport enjoyment were also addressed.

To investigate the sources of sport enjoyment, 213 African American college students completed a demographic questionnaire, the Sport Enjoyment Questionnaire (SEQ), a revised version of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ), and responded to two additional questions on overall sport enjoyment.

The students experienced enjoyment from a variety of sources. The intrinsic, task achievement, and social/non-achievement aspects of sport were the most enjoyable for these students. Students agreed that extrinsic sources were slightly less enjoyable and disagreed that the ego-achievement aspects of sport were enjoyable. In addition, only the task achievement subscale was enjoyable. Significant gender differences were observed in the ego, extrinsic, and social/non-achievement sources of sport enjoyment. Females reported less enjoyment than males on the extrinsic subscale and the ego achievement subscales. In contrast males experienced significantly less enjoyment than females related to the social/non-achievement subscale. Of the sources of sport enjoyment, the task achievement subscale was the only significant predictor of expected continuation in sport. In an analysis of the relationship between the achievement and non-achievement aspects of sport only those not identifying with the task and ego achievement subscales were examined. In examining the task achievement scale and the non-achievement subscale there was a positive albeit non-significant relationship between the two scales. In assessing the relationship between the ego achievement subscale and the non-achievement subscale a negative albeit nonsignificant relationship.

Based on this study, I concluded that African-American students in general enjoy and will continue to participate in sports that emphasize the task aspects of the activities. Female students in particular experienced greater enjoyment through the social aspects of sport. In contrast, male students, experienced greater enjoyment through the extrinsic aspects of the sport.

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