Date of Award

12-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Legacy Department

Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management

Committee Chair/Advisor

Barcelona, Robert

Committee Member

Schmalz , Dorothy

Committee Member

Brookover , Robert

Abstract

Whitewater kayaking has grown in popularity over the past two decades (NSRE, 1994; NSRE, 2000). Because of this growth a better understanding of participants motivations could assist vendors, programmers, and decision making bodies for the future of the sport. The intent of this study is to explore the differences between the demographic variables age, sex, and skill level on the motivations to participate in whitewater kayaking. A secondary purpose was to assess the differences between the basic psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and motivation to participate in the sport of whitewater kayaking.
Whitewater enthusiasts were recruited from across the United States via online forums to participate in a survey to identify basic needs and motivations. The basic psychological needs theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) and the leisure motivation scale (Beard & Ragheb, 1983) was used to measure the motivations of whitewater kayakers. A self-identifying questionnaire focusing on age, gender, region, and whitewater class provided socio-demographics while a Likert-type scale was used for the quantitative statistics. Literature pertaining to outdoor recreation suggests leisure motivations and basic psychological needs play a role in the reasons for participation (Galloway, 2011; Mota & Esculcas, 2002; Netz & Raviv, 2010; O'Connell, 2010).
The findings of this study largely support the literature suggesting a difference among leisure motivations, basic psychological needs, age, and skill. While limitations do exist pertaining to self-reporting, the implications of this study include programming, trainings, marketing, and safety education for whitewater kayakers.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.