TITLE:
Motivational Obstacles and Dropout among Female Youth Athletes
AUTHORS:
Iris Orbach, Neta Hoffman, Hadar Gutin, Boris Blumenstein
KEYWORDS:
Dropout, Female Athletes, Motivational Obstacles
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.13 No.6,
June
16,
2022
ABSTRACT: The dropout from competitive sport among young female athletes is a typical phenomenon especially during childhood and adolescents. This research examined the obstacles young females face while participating in team and individual sport disciplines. Participants included young female athletes (n = 889, age 8 - 17 years) from 10 different individual and team sport disciplines. The young athletes’ reasons for dropout from sports were measured by a valid and reliable questionnaire (Gould et al., 1985). Results of factor analysis for the obstacles that the young female athletes face while participating in competitive sport revealed four different factors: CF (coach factor), EF (external factor), NTF (no time factor), and NSF (no success factor). A three-way ANOVA with repeated measures (4 factors × 3 age groups × individual/team sport) revealed significant main effect for factors, significant main effect for individual/team sport, and significant interaction between factors, age groups, and individual/team sport. Post-hoc test with Bonferroni adjustments indicated that in individual sport among young age, NSF was higher than all the other obstacles, while in the middle and older age groups, NSF and NTF were higher than CF and EF. This means that in older ages, time factor is an obstacle together with no success factor. In team sports no significant obstacles were found among the young group. However, in the middle group NSF was the largest obstacle of the four. This means that no success is the most dominant obstacle compared to the other three. For the adult group NSF and NTF were higher than CF and EF. Applied recommendations based on the results of the study are presented.