Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
25-35
This research was supported by Academic Senate Grant 3188 from UCLA to the
first author. We grateftiUy acknowledge the cooperation received from the participants,
parents, coaches, and administrators of the California Age Group Wrestling Association
(CAGWA). Special thanks are extended to Larry Drinnon and Robert Stolo from CAGWA
and Randy Lewis from the Beverly HUls YMCA.
Sincere appreciation is extended to the 30 testers from UCLA and the School of
Physical Therapy, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles; and to Roger Bolus, Carol Giulia-
ni, Toni Grenko, Bruce Jackson, Paul Jones, Debbie Pascuzzi, Kenneth Ravizza, Gary
Stein, and Kdstine Thompson for their invaluable help on this project.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Tara K. Scanlan, Dept. of Kinesiology
UCLA, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024.
25
26 / Scanlan and Lewthwaite
Intrapersonal Factors
Age and perceived ability were the two intrapersonal predictors of enjoy-
ment investigated. The impetus for studying age was the evidence in the litera-
' Although enjoyment often has been used as the operational definition of intrinsic
motivation, we concur with Deci and Ryan (1980, p. 52) that they are not synonymous
constructs. See their discussion of the problems associated with the relationship between
the two constructs, and their presentation of the case that an activify can be enjoyable
without being intrinsically motivating.
^Futute participation in the sport was assessed by the question, "How much do you
want to wrestle next year?" Participants responded on a 5-point Likert scale where 1 =
very much and 5 = not at aU.
Predictors of Enjoyment / 27
Significant Adults
Method
Measures
Predictor Variables. Age was assessed by having participants indicate their
age in years. Perceived wrestling ability was measured in a social comparison
manner with the item, "How good of a wrestler do you think you are compared
to other wrestlers who are your age and who have wrestled for as long as you?"
Wrestlers responded on a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = very good and 5 =
not good at all.
Items pertaining to wrestlers' perceptions of characteristic parental and
coach behaviors and responses were subjected to an iterated principal axis factor
analysis to develop reliable measures of these infiuences. A complete description
ofthe rationale, procedures, and results for this analysis is provided in Scanlan
and Lewthwaite (1984).' In brief, eight factors with eigenvalues greater than 1
were derived and scales for each factor were created from the unweighted sum
of items loading above .40 on the factor.
'The figures reported in Scanlan and Lewthwaite (1984) for the variance accounted
for by each factor of the two factor analyses are incorrect. The correct percents of vari-
ance accounted for by the eight factors of the Significant Adults factor analysis (see Table
2, Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1984) are 14.90, 11.54, 11.39, 10.73, 9.79, 8.16, 8.02, and
7.35, for Factors I through VHI, respectively. The correct percents of variance for the
three factors of the Prematch Cognitions factor analysis (see Table 3, Scanlan & Lewth-
waite, 1984) are 32.55, 25.19, and 20.62, for Factors I through m , respectively.
Predictors of Enjoyment / 29
Tabie 1
Significant Adult Factors and Items Correlated with Enjoyment
Factor's correlation
Factors/Items with enjoyment
Note: For ease in reference, factor numbers are consistent with those in the original report
of this factor analysis (Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1984).
"1 = usually to 3 = hardiy ever.
"i = a very important reason for why I wrestle to 5 = not an important reason at all for
why I wrestle.
°1 = how I feel to 3 = not how I feel.
''i = very pleased to 5 =: not pleased at all.
30 / Scanlan and Lewthwaite
fan did you have wrestling this season?" and "How much do you like to wres-
tle?" Five-point Likert response scales where 1 = very much fun (very much)
and S = no fun at all (not at all) accompanied these questions. The fan and liking
items correlated .70 (p < .001). An enjoyment scale was therefore constructed
from the unweighted sum of the two items (alpha coefficient = .82) and used
as the dependent measure in the regression analysis.
Results
Zero-order
Predictor correlation
variable with enjoyment Beta F P
^Factor numbers correspond to the original eight factors presented in Scanlan and
Lewthwaite, 1984. Accordingly, Factors U, HI, and VI from the original analysis were
not significantly correlated with enjoyment.
Predictors of Enjoyment / 31
trapersonal variables, age and perceived wrestling ability, and the significant adult
factors, Adult Satisfaction with Season's Performance and Negative Maternal In-
teractions, emerged as significant predictors of enjoyment. In addition, the fac-
tor Positive Adult Involvement and Interactions was predictive at the/? = .0947
level. This latter finding is reported here because of its consistency with hypothe-
sized predictors and because this investigation marks the first time these infiuences
have been studied with respect to enjoyment. Therefore, it was felt that we should
be cautious about prematurely discarding potentially important variables.
Discussion
Overview
The findings regarding the intrapersonal predictors of age and perceived
ability demonstrated that younger children, and those who perceived themselves
to be more able, experienced greater enjoyment than their counterparts. If repli-
cated, the age result suggests that future research might pursue the reasons for
the age-enjoyment relationship, thereby revealing the aspects of the youth sport
experience that make it more attractive to younger participants, and less so for
their more senior peers. This approach could provide insight into the issue of
declining participation at the older age levels.' With respect to perceived ability,
the results further reinforce the importance of competence in the sport domain.
They support and extend previous findings by showing that skill-related factors,
whether mastery based (e.g., Wankel & Kreisel, 1985) or social comparison orient-
ed as refiected in this study, are central to sport enjoyment.
Previously cited research on coaching behaviors shows that coaches play
a significant role in children's sport enjoyment. The current findings corroborate
these results and suggest that parents also might be influential in this regard. Com-
pared with participants who had more negative perceptions, greater enjoyment
was experienced (a) by boys who felt their parents and coaches were more satis-
fied with their overall wrestling performance that season (Factor VII), and (b)
by wrestlers who perceived less pressure and fewer negative performance inter-
actions with their mothers (Factor Vm).* In addition, more positive perceptions
of adult involvement and interactions with the child in the sport context tended
to be related to greater enjoyment (Factor TV, p < .10).
ACHIEVEMENT
COMPETENCE/ COMPETENCE/
CONTROL-SELF CONTROL-OTHERS
MOVEMENT/ I NONPERFORMANCE/
COMPETITION I CONTEXT RELATED
NONACHIEVEMENT
Figure 1 — A model of sport ei\joyinent. Note: Roman numerals represent the four
quadrants of the model.
Factors related to sport enjoyment which fall in the model's four quadrants
include the following:
References
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