Abstract
People from different cultural background show different motives for taking part in sports. Since lack of research in this area, there is still uncertainty on motives of different cultural groups in Malaysia. Malaysia consists of many ethnic groups with different cultural backgrounds, namely Malays, Chinese and Indians, maintain separate cultural identities. Knowing motives of different ethnics for participating in sports will help sports psychologists and sport industries to develop an appropriate sports environment for that ethnics. The present research will evaluate the motives that encourage different background ethnics to participate in sports, in order to develop sport environment according to each ethnic needs. The sample consisted of 231 athletes, with Malay ethnic athletes (N=101), Chinese ethnic athletes (N=73) and Indian ethnic athletes (N=57). A 30-item questionnaire called Motives of Taking Part in Sport was used. Six factors were derived from the questionnaire. They are socialization, high status career, green space area, music, body shape and challenges. The result showed that Malay ethnic group taking part in sport for green space environment, Chinese for body shape, while Indians for socialization. The findings of this study will be beneficial to government officials, private sectors, sports psychologists and sport industries in Malaysia in conducting sports centers, products or services to encourage different ethnics in Malaysia to take part in sports.
Highlights
Motives can be defined as the intentions that cause a person to move, act, or to behave in a certain way (Brehm, 2004)
The results showed that the motive of Malay ethnic respondents participated in sports were highest in Green Space Area, followed by Body Shape, Socialization, Challenges and High status career
The results showed that the motive of Indian ethnic respondents participating in sports were highest in Socialization, followed by Challenges, Green Space Area, Music and Body Shape
Summary
Motives can be defined as the intentions that cause a person to move, act, or to behave in a certain way (Brehm, 2004). Comparing motives of different races on taking part in sportscan bring a lot of new knowledge for cultural studies and can design sport industry according to the preference of each ethnic. Identifying the range of motives given by different ethnic participants will help sports psychologists provide adequate and variety of sports enviroment, centers, programmes or services to maintain interest among those ethnics. This is because understandings of why particular ethnic choose to take part in sports while others do not, could be of great practical value
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