Perception about Participation of Women in Mexican Sports

Abstract

In Mexico, women's participation in sports are influenced by gender differences that can damage, both access to sport, such as social, family, and political support, affecting their sporting development. The aim of the study was to analyze the perception of women's participation in Mexican sports; as a complementary objective, a scale of attitudes towards women's participation in sports was validated through the psychometric analysis of the instrument. 884 young people participated, in three stages: 250 for the exploratory analysis and 634 for the confirmatory analysis of the scale, as well as statistical inferences. The Perception of the Relationship between Women and Sport questionnaire was adapted and complemented with self-developed items. The analysis of principal axes generated three factors that explained 50.18% of the total variance of the scale; a Cronbach's alpha greater than .80 was obtained, and the correlation by the method by halves was .67. The confirmatory analysis obtained a model that showed acceptable goodness-of-fit indices: = 147.80 (48 df, p < .01); CFI = .95; IFI = .95; NFI = .93 and RMSA = .05. The scales of social perception and women's access to sport presented differences based on gender (p < .05). The results confirmed the factorial structure of the scale, being valid for future research. In addition, they have a lower perception of social acceptance and access for women in Mexican sports compared to men.