A Comparative Study of the Motivations of Male and Female Adolescent Dancers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the motivations between adolescent male and female dancers’ for their participation in dance. This is important because there is very little information on male dancers and there is a need for more males is the dance world. The null hypothesis for this study is that there would be no statistically significant difference in intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, social motivation, emotional motivation, physical motivation, and artistic motivation scores on a self-report questionnaire between male and female adolescent dancers. A Likert-like scale was used that had a series of statements covering the following four categories of motivation: social, physical, emotional, and artistic. Within each category, five statements focused on extrinsic motivators and five focused on intrinsic motivators. Students came from a convenience sample of students at a private dance studio (Female n = 10; Male n = 8). There was no statistically significant difference between male and female dancers’ motivations for participating in dance in any category (i.e., Intrinsic motivation: male dancers (Mean = 32.25, SD = 9.47) and female dancers (Mean = 38.60, SD = 8.44) [t(16) = -1.50, p > .05]; Extrinsic motivation: male dancers (Mean = 25.50 SD = 9.20) and female dancers (Mean = 29.00, SD = 10.93) [t(16) = -0.72, p > .05]Social motivation: male dancers (Mean = 9.00, SD = 2.78) and female dancers (Mean = 9.20, SD = 3.33) [t(16) = -.14, p > .05]; Physical motivation: male dancers (Mean = 14.63, SD = 5.99) and the female dancers (Mean = 18.40, SD = 6.02) [t(16) = - 1.32, p > .05]; Emotional motivation: male dancers (Mean = 19.38, SD = 6.14) and female dancers (Mean = 22.40, SD = 5.89) [t(16) = -1.06, p > .05]; Artistic motivation: male dancers (Mean = 15.00, SD = 6.46) and female dancers (Mean = 17.60, SD = 6.35) [t(16) = -0.86, p > .05]). Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.