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Investigating the participation motives of women rugby union players in Canada and Wales

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posted on 2023-01-31, 10:13 authored by G. Kim, Alex McInch, J.H. Kerr

 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 Personality

Publisher

Reversal Theory Portal

Version

  • 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.2023.1201

Electronic ISSN

2331-2343

Cardiff Met Affiliation

  • Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences

Cardiff Met Authors

Alex McInch

Cardiff Met Research Centre/Group

  • Sport Management and Development

Copyright Holder

  • © The Authors

Language

  • en

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