A literature review on self-esteem as a motivational factor for attendance at sporting

events

Written by Dan Caruso

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Contents

3. Intro

3. Self-esteem findings

4. Criticisms of research

5. Conclusion

6. Bibliography

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Introduction

This literature review will look into self-esteem as a sports motivation factor, from various research already conducted and critically assess its relevance and credibility.

To define self-esteem, in a sports research context self-esteem is defined as holding oneself in high regard (Gabriel, 1999). Fans motivated by this variable enjoy the past time because it gives them a feeling of accomplishment or achievement when their team succeeds. However, it can also be independent of team success and be related to the feelings of identification and belonging (Wann, 1995).

Self Esteem findings

In Wann research study 1 where different motivational factors were tested in relation to gender it was found that males reported higher levels of self-esteem from attending sporting events then females (Wann, 1995).

There was a difference in the scores between people who consume team sports and those that consume individual sports, in which team sports scored higher for self-esteem than individual sports. This was the case in professional baseball, college football, professional football, professional basketball and college basketball. A reason put forward for this is in team sports the participants are usually involved for a couple of decades, as opposed to in individual sports like gymnastics and figure skating the athletes are only around for a few years. Therefore, this means sports fans are more likely to build an attachment to these teams and identify themselves with them, thus satisfying their self-esteem need. Another argument put forward is the scoring methods where team sports rely on goals and play to win, some individual sports like gymnastics and figure skating (Wann et al, 2008).

There is a link with people having high self-esteem adapt physical activity which in turn leads to sport participation. (Sonstream et al, 1989). It is important that understanding sport on oneself is critical to understanding what the motivations for consuming sport. (Mullin et al, 1993)

Post-game affect has been found in research to have a positive correlation in self-esteem factor of the sports fan motivational scale therefore indicating post game affect is a factor in influencing the self-esteem one gets from watching sports (Wann et al, 2002). Furthermore, this can result in individuals distancing themselves from unsuccessful teams, as it is a threat to their own self-esteem (Snyder et al, 1986).

There was no difference between the scores of non-aggressive sports and aggressive sports in relation to self-esteem being a motivating factor (Wann et al, 2008).

Motives and Identification with the team did not have any statistically significant relationship with the self-esteem or affective state (Trail et al, 2003).

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Criticisms of the research

Wann study looking at sports fan motivational scale has fundamental flaws in its testing of demographics. It was stated that study 1 examined the structure of the SMFS as well as the relationships between SFMS and various demographics and sports involvement measures.” I struggle to see how it been testing various demographics when the ethnicity was 90% white, 7% Black and 3% Asian (Wann, 1995). This shows that various cultures have not been considered in this research, therefore no comparison can be made between sports fan motivation and how the ethnicity demographics can affect it, due to the population sample size being too small to make a generalization.

Also in Wann study 166 of the 272 participants were students while the other 106 were involved in sport (Wann, 1995). The challenges that come with this is you are not getting a representative sample of the entire population of sport spectators. Students and participants for sports are not the only spectators of sport. They are many other demographic age groups i.e. people who do not participate in sport, people with young families, the elderly. Therefore, there motivational to watch sporting events may be slightly different.

The 166 students that completed the survey were doing so to receive course credit. A cynical view would say because they may have not had any interest in doing the study, they may have just ticked random boxes without completing the questionnaire properly potentially skewing the outcome of results. However, the similar studies that have been tested of students have reported similar findings.

The Wann study was conducted in 1995, which is over 20 years ago. Since then you can argue society and interest in sport has changed a lot. For example, the increasing interest in the premier league. Self-esteem may not be a factor anymore because where people are working longer hours they may see escapism as the main factor for attending a sporting event to get away from the stressful working week. Furthermore, it could now be a family factor as the pressures of the working week may mean families are not spending enough time together and sport will be a time where they can fulfil this need.

Another argument could argue that there needs in terms of self-esteem are already met as they will already have a belonging to a club and organisation and therefore may have differing opinions than that as a spectator attending the match, for example, if their team has lost a match and they have been sampled after a game they may be more favourable because they are an active participant of the sport.

A further demographic failed by the various research was to explore different territories. Different areas may have different preferences to what motivates them to attend sporting matches. The same as in politics, where there are different regions that support different political parties like labour or conservative.

The design of the questionnaire questions may not fully grasp what the researcher has asked for. One of the questions is asking “I watch sport because it increases my self-esteem” (Wann, 1995). The participant may not understand the definition of self-esteem, as it can have different definitions depending in what context it is used in. The oxford dictionary defines it as “the confidence in one’s own worth or abilities.” The reader may think how can watching a sport event boost my confidence?

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In Wann 1995, research subjects were being tested in groups and were able to discuss with each other as they were filling out the questionnaire. This could have affected the outcome of results and reliability as participants may respond based on someone else’s opinions because they have been influenced to do so when filling in the questionnaire. A disadvantage of questionnaires is they lack validity.

The research used in the majority of the studies was questionnaires, which based on the population sizes, which for most consisted of students at the same university would be simple and cost effective way to do. Other advantages would include being able to be analysed more scientifically (University of Surrey, 2016).

Many of the studies are based on men’s spectator sport, with limited research on women’s sports. When they have been tested, they have used model of research based on those developed for men’s sports. There may be different motivations for female spectator sports that need to be considered. Woman sports have been on the up rise and increasing in popularity, for example the woman’s football world cup (Funk et al, 2002).

A performance of a team, in terms of self-esteem being a motivational factor. For example, if you analyse performance of attendances of football games at the start of the season when optimism is high and contrast that with attendances towards the end of a season and a team performing mid table in the league these will be lower (Tepstra E, 2012). Sports spectator’s self-esteem are triggered by their team winning and not fulfilled when their team is losing. As described before from people wanting to distance themselves from unsuccessful teams. Therefore, depending on sporting performance and time of day this is done could have a positive or adverse effect on the results.

Conclusion

The research shows us self-esteem as being a factor when one choosing to watch sports. The various research conducted on sports fan motivations shows differences in in self-esteem as factor between gender and the type of sport watched (individual or team). What the research needs to further explore whether other demographics have an effect, such as, ethnicity, location and age. To do this the research will benefit from a broader population with a bigger diversity, though considerations will be required for cost and time. The research could also be further benefitted by looking at how self-esteem is triggered before a sporting match and after a sporting match to see the intensity of the effect of winning and losing has on self-esteem as a motivational factor. A simple survey before and after the game could achieve this. Additionally, more research should be undertaken to review to see if there are any differences between watching woman sporting events in contrasts to men’s sporting events and if there are any variances between the contrasting genders motivation of watching these sporting events.

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Bibliography

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McDonald, M, A., Milne, G, R., Hong, J. (2002), Motivational Factors for Evaluating Sport Spectator and Participant Markets, Sport Marketing Quarterly, 11, 2, 100-113

Mullin, BJ, Hardy, S & Sutton, WA (1993) Sports marketing. Champaign Human Kinetics Publishers

Snyder, C.R, Lassegard, M, & Ford, C.E, (1986), Distancing after group success and failure: Basking in reflected glory and cutting off reflected failure. Journal of Personality and Social Phycology, 51, 382-388

Sonstroem, R. J, & Morgan, W.P. (1989) Exercise the self-esteem rationale and model. Medicine and Science in sports Exercise, 21, 329-337

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Terpstra E. (2012). The 2011/12 Premier League season in attendances. Available: http://www.stadiumguide.com/the-201112-premier-league-season-in-attendances/. Last accessed 11th May 2016.

Trail, G, T., Fink, J, S., Anderson, D, F. (2003), Sport Spectator Consumption Behaviour, Sport Marketing Quarterly, 12, 1, 8-17

University of Surrey. (2016). The advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires. Available: http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/Introduction%20to%20Research%20and%20Managing%20Information%20Leicester/page_51.htm. Last accessed 11th May 2016.

Wann, D, L. (1995), Preliminary Validation of the Sport Fan Motivation Scale, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 19, 4, 377-396 10

Wann, D. & Royalty, J.L. & Rochelle, A.R. (2002) Using Motivationand Team Identification to Predict Sport Fans' Emotional Responses to TeamPerformance. In: Journal of Sport Behaviour, Volume 25, Part 2. Mobile, USA:University of Alabama. ISSN: 0162-7341. pp. 207-216.

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