Abstract
ABSTRACT This study explores the reasons why older people participate in sports. A total of 463 senior athletes (M = 61.4, SD = 5.5) who are actively engaged in competitive sports disciplines participated in this study. The participants indicated their degree of agreement with reasons for practicing sport on a 4-point Likert scale with 20 items, developed on the basis of a literature review on motivation theories in sports. These items were analyzed psychometrically. The exploratory factorial analysis revealed five components: competitiveness, interpersonal, cognitive, physical and emotional reasons. The most frequently reported reasons for participation were to feel healthier, to improve mood, and to release tension and stress. Analyses of variance showed significant differences in reasons for participating in sport based on sex, age, comparative health status, type of sport and number of competitive events attended per year. These findings could contribute to the development of age-specific sports promotion interventions tailored to different groups of older people.
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