The Perceived Influence of Socializing Agents on Hong Kong

Young Women's Entry into Sports Participation

Cecilia Au, China

Female University new entrants (N=1697) responding to a sport and physical activity participation questionnaire indicated via Likert-type statements the extent to which socializing agents were believed to have encouraged or discouraged them to become involved in sports. On average, students perceived that all agents encouraged them to some extent to participate, but females friends, PE teachers and mothers were rated as more influential.

Among the 1697 students, 979 students indicated that they had participated in sports at a competitive level, with over 500 of them at inter-school and open league levels. From unpaired t-tests, there were significant differences in the perceived encouragement of agents between the competitive and non-competitive groups. The competitive group perceived all the agents except religion as more encouraging.

From Anovas, there were also some significant differences among the competitors of different levels in the perceived influence of the agents. Those at higher competitive levels perceived the agents as more encouraging.

The results show that competitive participants more strongly felt the agents had encouraged them into sport participation than non-competitors did, and that significant but relatively small differences existed among the levels of competitive participants.

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