ISSN: 2375-4494

Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior
Open Access

Our Group organises 3000+ Global Conferenceseries Events every year across USA, Europe & Asia with support from 1000 more scientific Societies and Publishes 700+ Open Access Journals which contains over 50000 eminent personalities, reputed scientists as editorial board members.

Open Access Journals gaining more Readers and Citations
700 Journals and 15,000,000 Readers Each Journal is getting 25,000+ Readers

This Readership is 10 times more when compared to other Subscription Journals (Source: Google Analytics)
  • Commentry   
  • J Child Adolesc Behav

Influencing Factors in Adolescent Sports Practice According to Gender

Adrián Mateo-Orcajada1, Lucía Abenza-Cano1*, Raquel Vaquero-Cristóbal1*, Sonia María Martínez-Castro2, Alejandro Leiva-Arcas1, Ana María Gallardo-Guerrero1 and Antonio Sánchez-Pato1
1Department of Sport, Catholic University San Antonio of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
2Department of Social Sciences and Communication, Catholic University San Antonio of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
*Corresponding Author(s): Lucía Abenza-Cano, Department of Sport, Catholic University San Antonio of Murcia, Murcia, Spain, Tel: +34-968-278-824 , Email: labenza@ucam.edu
Raquel Vaquero-Cristóbal, Department of Social Sciences and Communication, Catholic University San Antonio of Murcia, 30107 Murcia, Spain, Tel: +34-968-278-824, Email: rvaquero@ucam.edu

Received: 02-Dec-2021 / Accepted Date: 16-Dec-2021 / Published Date: 23-Dec-2021

About the Study

Adolescence is a crucial stage for the establishment of healthy lifestyle habits, including adherence to regular physical activity [1]. During this period, adolescent sports practice is influenced by multiple factors that could create differences in sports participation according to gender, among which gender stereotypes, the media and the environment closest to adolescents stand out, due to the influence on the sports practice of this population [2,3]. The influence of gender stereotypes seems to be one of the most determining aspects, since adolescents practice certain sports activities and leave others to avoid being questioned by society when practicing sports considered not very masculine or feminine [4,5]. Research to date considers that gender stereotypes affect adolescent boys and girls equally [6], but the origin of these is diverse, making it difficult to eradicate them. However, in recent years, changes have been carried out in public policies and media coverage, making it possible to break certain gender stereotypes that were still present in sport [7], With respect to the media and the environment close to adolescents, they have also been shown to be relevant factors for the practice of sports by adolescents [8], but questions remain as to the real influence they exert, as well as that exerted by gender stereotypes.

In order to answer these questions, set out the following objectives:

• To determine which types of sports were most practiced by adolescent males and females; and

• To analyze the relationship of gender stereotypes, the type of sport observed and the personal environment, to the type of sport practiced, depending on the adolescent’s gender.

To this end, a total of 632 adolescents (317 males and 315 females) completed the questionnaires “Lifestyle in Sport with a Gender Perspective” and “International Questionnaire of Physical Activity for Adolescents”. Both instruments had been validated in previous research and allowed information to be obtained on the beliefs and attitudes of adolescents towards sports practice, and the level of practice they engaged in. To conduct the data collection, the students completed both questionnaires individually and anonymously. After the data collection, the sports with the highest participation of boys (such as basketball or indoor football), girls (like artistic gymnastics or hiking) and those with similar participation (such as martial arts or tennis) were determined, as well as the gender stereotypes present in adolescents and the type of sport seen in the media.

The results showed significant differences according to gender in the type of sport practiced (p<0.05), in the membership to sports clubs (p<0.001), and in the participation in competitions (p<0.001). It was found that family (p<0.005) and friends (p<0.05) were the social agents that most influenced the choice of the type of sport practiced, and that the type of sport watched live (p<0.005), and in the media (p<0.001), was related to gender and the type of sport practiced. In contrast, the gender stereotypes of the adolescents themselves were not related to the practice of sports (p=0.605).

Conclusion

Sports with a similar participation between males and females have continued to gain relevance over the years and make up the vast majority of the sports modalities included in the research. Membership in sports clubs and the participation in competitions were found to be similar in the sports most practiced by males and those with similar participation rates, regardless of the gender of the adolescents, confirming that the gender gap in sports is narrowing. Gender stereotypes did not seem to be a determining factor in sports practice. The environment closest to the adolescents was related to the type of sport practiced by those adolescents. There were also differences according to gender in the type of sports they watched as spectators, but in most cases no differences were found according to the type of sport practiced.

References

  1. Marques, Adilson, Duarte Henriques-Neto, Miguel Peralta and João Martins, et al. "Prevalence of Physical Activity among Adolescents from 105 Low, Middle, and High-Income Countries." Int J Environ Res Pub Heal 17 (2020): 3145.
  2. Plaza, Mélissa, Julie Boiché, Lionel Brunel and François Ruchaud. "Sport, Male but Not All Sports: Investigating the Gender Stereotypes of Sport Activities at the Explicit and Implicit Levels." Sex Roles 76 (2017): 202-217.
  3. Miguel, Sánchez, Pedro Antonio, Francisco Miguel Leo and Diana Amado, et al. "Relationships between Physical Activity Levels, Self-Identity, Body Dissatisfaction and Motivation among Spanish High School Students." J Hum Kinet 59 (2017): 29.
  4. Boiché, Julie, Mélissa Plaza, Aïna Chalabaev and Emma Guillet-Descas, et al. "Social Antecedents and Consequences of Gender-Sport Stereotypes during Adolescence." Psychol Women Quart 38 (2014): 259-274.
  5. López Albalá, Elena. "Mujeres Deportistas Españolas: Estereotipos De Género En Los Medios De Comunicación." (2016).
  6. Mateo-Orcajada, Adrián, Lucía Abenza-Cano, Raquel Vaquero-Cristóbal and Sonia María Martínez-Castro, et al. "Influence of Gender Stereotypes, Type of Sport Watched and Close Environment on Adolescent Sport Practice According to Gender." Sustain 13 (2021): 11863.
  7. Sobal, Jeffery and Michelle Milgrim. "Gendertyping Sports: Social Representations of Masculine, Feminine, and Neither-Gendered Sports among US University Students." J Gend Stud 28 (2019): 29-44.
  8. Sainz-de-Baranda, Clara, Alba Adá-Lameiras and Marian Blanco-Ruiz. "Gender Differences in Sports News Coverage on Twitter." Int J Env Res Pub Heal 17 (2020): 5199.

Citation: Adrián Mateo-Orcajada, Lucía Abenza-Cano, Raquel Vaquero-Cristóbal, Sonia María Martínez-Castro, Alejandro Leiva-Arcas, Ana María Gallardo-Guerrero, Antonio Sánchez-Pato. “Influencing Factors in Adolescent Sports Practice According to Gender.” J Child Adolesc Behav 9 (2021): 431.

Copyright: © 2021 Mateo-Orcajada A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Top