Serious Leisure and Personality Dimensions in Club Sport Athletes
Submitted by Eric Hungenberg1*, and James Gould2, Ph.D*
1* Assistant Professor of Sport & Leisure Service Administration at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Chattanooga TN 37403
2* Associate Professor, School of Human Sciences, Recreation, Tourism, & Hospitality Program, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639
Eric Hungenberg is an Assistant Professor of Sport & Leisure Service Administration at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. His background working as a practitioner in sport involved overseeing and marketing destination club sport events. His research agenda is geared towards understanding sport commitment and sport tourism consumer behavior with a particular interest in the relationship between a consumer’s emotional connection to location and consumption.
James Gould is an Associate Professor of Recreation, Tourism, & Hospitality in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado. His academic interests include adventure special events, leisure philosophy, and community & outdoor recreation. Gould’s research agenda includes the psychometric analysis of committed leisure behavior, passive leisure, and adventure tourism.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between personality types and sport seriousness and their influences on sport choice and skill level among club sport athletes. A convenience sample of athletes (N = 215) representing fifteen clubs was conducted at two mid-sized universities in the mountain region of the United States. Personality was measured using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) form G (Myers & McCaulley, 1985), and the Ten Item Personality Measure (TIPM) (Gosling, Rentfrow, & Swann, 2003) for assessing the Big 5 Personality dimensions. Sport commitment was measured using the Serious Leisure Inventory and Measure (SLIM) (Gould, Moore, McGuire, & Stebbins, 2008). Results indicated that personality explained a moderate amount of variance in sport seriousness and self-reported skill levels. A logistic regression model indicated that the big five types were able to distinguish between contact sport and non-contact sport types of participation. Team sport athletes revealed a stronger identity with their sport and greater personal and group outcomes than did individual sport athletes.
Key words: serious leisure, personality traits, sport choice, sport skill, club sports (more…)