Gender and sport. Influence of psychosocial variables on sport practice by young men and women

Abstract

In this article some social-psychological factors that may influence young men’s and women’s sport practices are studied. We adopt the Eccles’ Expectancy-Value Model For Achievement applied to the sport context (Eccles and Harold, 1991), with a sample of 627 Andalusian male and female secondary students. The main factors studied were: Identity (gender identity, athletic identity and self-concept on physical ability), the subjective value that people give to sport, person’s affective memories in connection with sport, attitudes toward women’s sport practice, and gender ideology. Results corroborate the differences between boys and girls in sport practices, interests and attitudes, as well as in the rest of the studied variables, although differences were not very big in absolute terms. Eccles’ model of achievement election receives considerable support, especially concerning the direct relationships among variables. Nevertheless, variables related with identity (especially athletic identity and self-concept on physical ability) showed a stronger relationship with sport practices than variables related with values regarding sport activities.