Content area
Abstract
Compared to men, the sports participation of women is lower in Nigeria and there is need to stern this tide. In light of this, this study examined the perceived influence of socio-cultural factors on female sports participation in selected tertiary institutions in Kwara State, leveraging on theory of liberal feminism and planned behaviour theory as its theoretical guide. This study used the descriptive survey as its research design and the population of the study comprised of all female students of the selected tertiary institutions in Kwara State for 2021/22 academic session. Stratified sampling technique was used to group the tertiary institutions in Kwara State into three stratas which were Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, after which one institution from each of the stratas were randomly selected. Proportional sampling technique was used to select the female students from each selected institution. In the selected university, a total number of 235 female students were selected while 88 and 47 female students were selected from the chosen Polytechnic and College of Education respectively. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics of independent samples t-test and Analysis of Variance. The findings indicated that family belief (mean = 2.0), cultural belief (mean= 1.8), religion (mean= 2.3) and social inclusion (mean= 1.9) had low extent of influence on female participation in sport in the selected tertiary institutions in Kwara state, while peer group (mean= 2.7) had high influence on female participation PPin sport in these institutions. Findings also indicated a significant difference in the perceived influence of family belief on female participation in sport based on ethnic group (F (2,367) = 13.481; P<0.05), no significant difference in the perceived influence of cultural belief on female participation in sport based on ethnic group (F (2,367) = 1.086; P>0.05), no significant difference in the perceived influence of peer group on female participation in sport based on marital status (t = 0.81; df = 368; P> 0.05), no significant difference in the perceived influence of religion on female participation in sport based on marital status (t = 1.49; df = 368; P> 0.05), and no significant difference in the perceived influence of social inclusion on female participation in sport based on marital status (t = 0.17; df = 368; P> 0.05). Based on the findings of this study, it is concluded that socio-cultural factors had varying degrees of influence on female participation in sports in the selected tertiary institutions in Kwara State. It was therefore recommended that there is need for targeted interventions and strategies to improve the involvement of female in sports.
