MST-Department of Recreation Management & Exercise Science

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Browsing MST-Department of Recreation Management & Exercise Science by Subject "Athletes"

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    Influence of Motivational Climate and Goal Orientation on Attitudes towards Doping among Athletes in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2022) Kipchumba, Kevin Kiprotich; Elijah G. Rintaugu; Francis M. Mwangi
    Doping is a global problem that is increasing at an alarming rate and most recently among Kenyan athletes. Athletes who have ego orientation (as opposed to task orientation) and have performance climate (as opposed to mastery climate) have been associated to doping and the use of performance-enhancing substances in sports. However, there is paucity of data on the status of these associations among Kenyan athletes where increasing doping cases are threatening the country's international reputation in distance running performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of motivational climate and goal orientation on attitudes towards doping among athletes in Elgeyo-Marakwet Count, Kenya. Additionally, the study assessed the influence of selected demographic variables of age, gender, and length of experience on attitudes towards doping. Cross-sectional survey design was used and data was collected from athletes (N=323) from Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya who were recruited through stratified random sampling. An adapted version of the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire (PMCQ-2) was used to assess the athletes' motivational climate, while athlete's goal orientation was assessed using the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ). A modified version of the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS) was used to assess athletes' attitudes toward doping. Descriptive values of percentages, frequencies, means and standard deviations were calculated and used to organize and summarize the data. Spearman’s rank correlation was calculated to determine the relationship between motivational climate and goal orientation on attitudes towards doping and binary logistical regression analysis were computed to find out the significant influence of motivational climate, goal orientation and demographic variables of age, gender, and length of experience on attitudes towards doping. Based on responses to a five-point Likert scale, results of descriptive analyses showed the following: mastery climate; 4.17± 0.62, performance climate; 2.88±0.62, task-orientation; 4.14±0.65, ego-orientation; 3.07±0.79 and doping attitude scale; 2.32±0.70 (Mean ± Standard Deviation). Correlational analysis indicated significant inverse relationship between mastery climate and doping attitude (rho = -.242; p < 0.001) and a significant positive correlation between performance climate and doping attitude (rho = .362; p < 0.001) in motivational climate. In goal orientation, results indicated significant inverse relationship between task orientation and doping attitude (rho = -.158; p = 0.004) and a significant positive correlation between ego orientation and doping attitude (rho = .362; p < 0.001). The study showed that majority of the athletes, 65.6% (212), were the least likely to dope, whereas 34.4% (111) were highly likely to dope. Binary logistical regression analysis revealed that performance climate (χ2 = 9.94; p = 0.002) and ego orientation (χ2 = 12.90; p < 0.001) made significant contributions/influence to attitudes towards doping. On the other hand, mastery climate (χ2 = 2.21; p = .14), task orientation (χ2 = 2.00; p = 0.16), age (χ2 = 2.41; p = 0.12), gender (χ2 = .85; p = 0.36) and length of experience (χ2 = .10; p = 0.75) made no significant influence on athletes’ attitudes towards doping. In conclusion, the study found task orientation and mastery climate associated with anti-doping attitudes, while ego orientation and performance climate were associated with pro-doping attitudes. It is recommended that there should be more emphasis on coach and athlete education that promote the aspects of mastery climate and task orientation as opposed to performance climate and ego orientation as this may aid in anti-doping efforts.
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    University Student Athletes’ Perceptions of Sports Scholarships and Sports Participation Within Selected Kenyan Universities in Nairobi City County
    (Kenyatta University, 2022) Araka, Kebaso Onchong’a Nelion; David Muigai; Mugala Bulinda Hannington
    In Kenya, it has been noted that the development of education has been geared immensely by the spirit of sports. However, it is notable that a lot of talents are lost due to constraints encountered as a result of lack of support and motivation among the Kenyan students’ athletes. The general goal of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of sports scholarship on athletes’ participation in Kenyan Universities. In order to achieve the general goal, this study was guided by various specific objectives. These includes determining the major factors influencing athletes’ participation and analysis of the perceptions of athletes’ sports participation among university athletes. The study focused on Kenyan universities within Nairobi City County. A descriptive study design was used for this study while the study focused on the population of university athletes of handball, soccer, basketball and volley ball teams in the universities under Kenya Universities Sports Association. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify the sample of athletes. This study adopted a sample size of 10% of the total population for the various strata. Questionnaires were the primary instruments for data collection. Measures of dispersion were used for statistical analysis such as standard deviation, percentages and t-test. The study found that some of the major factors that influences participation of the athletes in diverse sporting activities include skills development, cognitive benefits, health and physical fitness, need for scholarships, spirit of competition, psychological benefits, friendship development and stress/tension management. The results showed that only a few students had benefitted from the scholarships while the majority of the athletes had not gotten any scholarship opportunity. Similarly, the process of accessing any scholarship opportunity was quite difficult and just a few athletes would be lucky to get any form of scholarship. Other factors that were reported to impact the whole process of securing scholarships among the athletes include proper linkages, exposure, playing environment and institutional support. The study showed significant relationship between availability of scholarship opportunities and sports participation. The study recommended that there is need to conduct further research on factors influencing accessibility of scholarships among university athletes.