Students' Gender Role Beliefs About Running in Schools

Background/Purpose: It is well documented that gender role beliefs play an important role in students’ participation in physical activity and sport (Lee, 2002). Considered a lifelong physical activity, running has been integrated into physical education programs in many schools to promote students’ participation in physical activity. But there has been little research examining students’ gender role beliefs about running, especially from a longitudinal perspective. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to examine 1) the mean level changes in students’ gender role beliefs about running over time, 2) gender differences in students’ gender role beliefs, and 3) relationships between students’ gender role beliefs and their motivational outcomes (interest in running, intention for future running participation and one mile run performance).

Method: A total of 533 5th graders were recruited from two intermediate schools, who participated in running programs conducted in their regularly scheduled physical education classes at the beginning of the study. They completed previously validated questionnaires assessing their gender role beliefs about running, interest in running and intention for future running participation. Each questionnaire had a 5-point Likert scale and was administered at the end of grades 5-8.  Students also completed a timed mile run test at the end of each of the four school years. The final sample consisted of 246 students (132 boys, 112 girls) who had data from 5th to 8th grades.

Analysis/Results: Paired-sample t-tests indicated gender role beliefs decreased from 6^th to 7^th grades, t (243) = -3.799, P =0.00, with no significant mean-level changes found in other grades. ANOVAs revealed the boys held higher gender role beliefs about running than the girls at the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grades (F (1, 245)= 38.84, P = 0.00; F (1, 243)= 18.74, P = 0.00; F (1, 245) = 37.16, P =0.008; F (1, 245) = 40.9, P = 0.00, respectively). Parallel process model analysis on the longitudinal relationships between gender role beliefs about running and the motivational outcomes revealed one significant result. Girls recording higher gender role beliefs reported lower interest in running than their counterparts across the four school years.    

Conclusions: This study is perhaps the first to provide empirical data that boys are more likely than girls to consider running to be an activity more appropriate for boys as they progress from fifth to 8^th grades. Future research is needed to examine potential contributing factors to this observed gender difference.