Evaluation of the Factors Affecting Participation in Recreational Court Tennis in Terms of Gender and Age

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors which affect participation in recreational court tennis in terms of gender and age. 105 males (age: 30.37±11.74 years, height: 178.37±7.36 cm, and mass: 79.05±11.81 kg) and 101 females (age: 27.22±8.70 years, height: 166.59±6.72 cm, and mass: 60.60±9.24 kg), who participated in court tennis recreationally, made up the sample of the study. The factors which affect participation in court tennis recreationally were determined by the Recreational Exercise M otivation M easure which was originally developed by Rogers and M orris (2003) and adapted into Turkish by Gürbüz et al. (2006). The Independent Samples T-Test revealed that the female participants had higher scores in the health and body -appearance subdimensions of the scale than the males (p<0.05). No statistically significant differences were found in terms of gender in the other subscales (p>0.05). Differences between participants' demographic characteristics (monthly income, marital status and level of education) were assessed by Chi-square test and there was no difference between groups in terms of demographic characteristics (p>0.05). Pearson correlation analysis revealed a weak, negative correlation (r= -0.179) between age and competition scores of the scale. There was no correlation between age and the other subdimensions of the scale (p>0.05). Female participants were more involved in tennis for physical appearance than men. In both males and females, as age increased, participation in tennis aiming at competition decreased.