Role of Socializing Agents in Female Sport Involvement

Abstract

A social learning paradigm was used to examine the influence of socializing agents on the process of socialization of women into sport. A fixed-alternative questionnaire was administered to 585 female participants in the Wisconsin Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The first hypothesis, which predicted differential influence of socializing agents over the life cycle, was partially accepted. Peers were the major influence throughout each life-cycle stage; family served as a strong socializing agent during childhood, had no significant effect during adolescence, and proved to be significantly less influential during adulthood. Teachers and coaches served as significant agents only during adolescence. The second hypothesis, which predicted males as predominant role models, was not rejected for childhood, but was rejected for adolescence and the adult stage when female role models became more significant. When role models were examined from the perspective of athletes only, male athletes were significant at every stage, whereas female athletes were never significant.

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