Investigating the participation motives of women rugby union players in Canada and Wales
Previous interview research has indicated that women’s rugby union participation is multi-faceted, with most players providing several different motives for getting involved in the sport.The aim of this study was to further examine participation motivation in women’s rugby byreplicating and extending the findings of the earlier research (Kerr, 2021) using a differentapproach to data collection and a larger sample size. Snowball sampling was used to recruitrugby playing female participants. A qualitative study focusing on participant responses toopen-ended questions on participation motivation from an online survey was then undertaken.Thematic analysis was utilized to identify sub-themes and major themes from the data. Thesewere found to be common to both Canadian and Welsh female rugby players. Four majorthemes were identified from the survey data. These were:Intrinsic motivation; Unique culture;Barriers to participation; and Acknowledgment of future generations.These major themessubsumed a number of sub-themes with overlapping characteristics.Empowermentandsenseof challengewere included under the major themeIntrinsic motivation, andcountercultureandstereotypesincluded under the major themeBarriers to participation.The current studyreplicated a number of findings from the original study, but there were two new findings. Thefirst was that some players experienced a strong sense of empowerment through playing rugby.The second was the desire to give something back and help to continue to grow the sport.Reversal theory was used to interpret the findings and explain the psychological background tothe players’ participation motives.
History
Published in
Journal of Motivation, Emotion, and PersonalityPublisher
Reversal Theory PortalVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Citation
G. Kim, A. McInch, and J.H. Kerr (2023) 'Investigating the participation motives of women rugby union players in Canada and Wales', Journal of Motivation, Emotion, and Personality, 12. DOI: 10.12689/jmep.2023.1201Electronic ISSN
2331-2343Cardiff Met Affiliation
- Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences
Cardiff Met Authors
Alex McInchCardiff Met Research Centre/Group
- Sport Management and Development
Copyright Holder
- © The Authors
Language
- en