Expressions of Political and Patriotism/National Pride Values as Determinants of Sport Participation among Adolescents in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the expressions of political and patriotism/national pride values as determinants of sport participation among adolescents in Rivers State. Consequently, the descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The participants consisted of nine hundred and sixty (960) secondary school adolescents, drawn from all the three Senatorial Districts of Rivers State as follows; Rivers West: (320); Rivers East: (320) and Rivers South East: (320). The participants were drawn using the convenient/accidental sampling technique. The research instrument for this study was the structured questionnaire, with a correlation co-efficient value of 0.91. The inferential statistics of linear regression was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 Alpha levels. The findings of the study revealed that political and patriotism/national pride values were determinants of sport participation among adolescents in Rivers State. The study therefore, recommended that adolescents should be more encouraged to participate in sports. Enlightenment programmes on the values inherent from sports participation should be organized for the adolescents periodically.  Through this, many adolescents who do not know the values of sports participation will be informed and consequently get involved in sports participation and adolescents should be encouraged to participate in sports by providing assistance in form of money, equipment among others to them, as that will sustain their interest and facilitate their participation in sports.