A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EXERCISE MOTIVATION BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE UNDER 17 YEARS SOCCER PLAYERS

The purpose of the present research was to compare the level of exercise motivation of male and female soccer players. Secondary purpose of this work was to answer of the question “which gender needs what extend of exercise motivation to perform better in sports?” The method carried out in this study was quantitative in nature and based on the questionnaire study. Population of this research consisted on all male and female soccer players in Rakiraki Public High School, Kings Road, Fiji. Among the total population the sample consisted on 50 boys and 50 girls (all subjects were below 17 years of age). The Exercise Motivation Inventory developed by Markland and Hardy, (1993) was used to gauge the level of exercise motivation of both genders. Results of statistical analysis (t-test) showed that there was no significant difference between male and female players on their level of exercise motivation, but the mean value of female players was found considerably higher than the male players. This finding leads to conclude that both male and female under 17 years soccer players having same level of exercise motivation