engleski

Factor structure of parental sport preferences

The research of sport participation and sport interests in Croatia repeatedly show strong gender stereotyping. The significance of parents in the development of gender stereotypes in sport is not solved yet. The aim of this study is to establish the factor structure of parental assessment of appropriateness of different sports for their children, to evaluate the role of gender stereotyping in latent structure of parental assessment. The sample of this study consists of 484 parents of 1st to 4th grade elementary school pupils from the capital of Croatia. The sample consists of 276 mothers and 208 fathers of 247 sons and 237 daughters. Parental preferences of sports were registered on the list of 52 sports being officially recognized in Croatia for not less than 15 years. Sports from the list had to be evaluated on five-point scale, ranging from particularly inappropriate sport for their child to particularly appropriate. Factor structure of parental sport preferences was determined by hierarchical principal component analysis with promax transformation of principle axes. The number of components to be retained at each level of analysis was set by Kaiser-Guttman criterion, by the number of eigenvalues exceeding value 1. At the first level, ten components were retained. Two of ten promax factors could be explained by gender stereotyping. The first was defined by rugby, wrestling, boxing, weightlifting, bodybuilding, auto-motor sport and ice hockey, with negative or nil values of typically „female“ sports. The second was defined by rhythmic gymnastics, aerobics, synchronized swimming and dance, with marked negative value of football (soccer). At the next level, three second order factors were retained. The first factor is very similar to the factor of “male” sports from the first order, and can be interpreted in the same way. Second factor is composed of different sports, but without popular team sports (football, basketball, and handball). Third factor is also composed of different sports, this time without “male” sports. One third order factor is clearly recognized as general factor of parental assessments of sport appropriateness of sports for their children. The only sport with low correlation with third order factor is football (soccer), meaning that football meets different principles of assessment. It could be concluded that gender stereotyping can be found in the latent structure of parental preferences of different sports for their children, but that stereotyped gender appropriateness is not the only criterion for sport evaluation.

parents; sport preferences; gender stereotypes

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