Do Sex, Age, and Marital Status Influence the Motivations of ...

Several studies have focused on the motivation of recreational runners due to the importance they place on participating in such events (León- ... Skiptomaincontent DownloadArticle DownloadPDF ReadCube EPUB XML(NLM) Supplementary Material Supplementaldata totalviews ViewArticleImpact SHAREON RubénManeiro PontificalUniversityofSalamanca,Spain BeatKnechtle InstituteforFamilyMedicine,FacultyofMedicine,UniversityofZurich,Switzerland JuanJoséSalinero CamiloJoséCelaUniversity,Spain Theeditorandreviewer'saffiliationsarethelatestprovidedontheirLoopresearchprofilesandmaynotreflecttheirsituationatthetimeofreview. Abstract Introduction MaterialsandMethods Results Discussion Conclusion DataAvailabilityStatement EthicsStatement AuthorContributions ConflictofInterest SupplementaryMaterial References Opensupplementaldata Exportcitation EndNote ReferenceManager SimpleTEXTfile BibTex Checkforupdates Peoplealsolookedat ORIGINALRESEARCHarticle Front.Psychol.,31August2020Sec.MovementScienceandSportPsychology https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02151 DoSex,Age,andMaritalStatusInfluencetheMotivationsofAmateurMarathonRunners?ThePoznanMarathonCaseStudy PatxiLeón-Guereño1,MiguelAngelTapia-Serrano2*,ArkaitzCastañeda-Babarro2andEwaMalchrowicz-Mośko3* 1Health,PhysicalActivityandSportsScienceLaboratory,DepartmentofPhysicalActivityandSports,FacultyofPsychologyandEducation,UniversityofDeusto,Bilbao,Spain 2DepartmentofDidacticsofMusical,PlasticandBodyExpression,FacultyofTeacherTraining,UniversityofExtremadura,Cáceres,Spain 3FacultyofSportSciences,EugeniuszPiaseckiUniversityofPhysicalEducation,Poznań,Poland Thepurposeofthisresearchwastodescribereasonsforparticipatinginamarathonandtheirassociationwithmaritalstatus,age,andsex.Fourhundredandninety-threerunnersintotal,144ofwhomwerewomenand349ofwhomweremen,completedthePolishversionoftheMotivationsofMarathonersScale(MOMS),containingninedimensions,whichwasreleasedthroughanonlinesurveyatthePoznanMarathoninPoland(2019).Athletes’age(ranges19–25,26–35,36–50,51–70years)andmaritalstatus(single,married,divorced)wereaskedoftheparticipants.Theresultsshowedthatstatisticalsignificantassociationswerefoundbetweenathletes’motivationalaspectsandathletes’sexandage.Tothisend,threeMOMSdimensionswerestatisticallyassociatedwithathletes’sex,afurtherthreedimensionsweredifferentage-wise,and,lastly,maritalstatusdidnotshowdifferencesinanyofthedimensions.Moreover,statisticaldifferenceswerenotfoundinthemultivariateanalysiscomparingmaritalstatus,sex,andagerangeaccordingtoMOMS.Recreationalrunners’reasonsforparticipatinginamarathonaredifferentdependingoncertainsociodemographicvariables;therefore,thesecharacteristicsshouldbeconsideredwhenaddressingdifferentathletesinordertoprovidethemwiththemostsuitableinformationfortakingpartinsuchevents. Introduction Recreationalrunninghasbecomeoneofthemostcommonphysicalactivitiesworldwide,andthenumberofrunningeventshasincreasedproportionally(Breedveldetal.,2015;Hallmannetal.,2015;Dallingaetal.,2019;Kozlovskaiaetal.,2019),ashasthenumberofmarathonshostedbydifferentcitiesintheworld(Hulteenetal.,2017).Thelattergatherthousandsofpeoplewithdifferentlevelsofskillwhoarekeentorunsuchadistance(BuningandWalker,2016).Duetothispopularity,awide-rangingapproachhasanalyzedthesemasssportsevents,inanattempttodescribe,amongotheraspects:thephysicalhealthbenefitsofrunning(Hulteenetal.,2017;Ojaetal.,2017;Mujika-Alberdietal.,2018;Kozlovskaiaetal.,2019);psychologicalbenefitsandmentalchange(Mazyarkinetal.,2019),finding,forinstance,thatmarathonrunners’mentalhealthwasbetterthanthatofnon-athletes(Raglin,2007;BoudreauandGiorgi,2010);endurancerunningperformance-relatedresearch(Ferreretal.,2015);social,tourism,andleisure-relatedresearch(ShipwayandJones,2007;Waśkowski,2011;NowakandChalimoniuk-Nowak,2015;Summersetal.,2016;Malchrowicz-MośkoandRozmiarek,2018;Malchrowicz-Mośkoetal.,2019),coaching-relatedresearch(Malchrowicz-MośkoandRozmiarek,2018),andresearchinvolvinganalyzingpsychosocialfactorsrelatedtomarathonrunning(Summersetal.,2016);andpsychologicalmotivationalcharacteristicsofamateurorrecreationalrunners(Larumbeetal.,2009;HammerandPodlog,2016). Sincerunningeventshaveincreasedsignificantlyinthelastfewdecades,organizershavestartedtryingtounderstandthereasonswhyathleteswouldtakepartindifferentsportseventsandtodefinethereasonswhyapersondecidestoparticipateinsuchevents(Scheerderetal.,2015).Adistinctionisthusdrawnbetweencertaingroupswithspecificcharacteristicsthatneedtobetakenintoaccountwhenorganizinganenduranceevent(BuningandWalker,2016).Inthisregard,agreatbodyofliteraturehastriedtodescribethereasonsthathaveledathletestotakepartindifferentsportsenduranceevents,e.g.,triathlons(Croftetal.,1999;WickerandWeimar,2012;López-Fernándezetal.,2014;Myburghetal.,2014)andcyclingevents(Lachausse,2006;Heeschetal.,2012;Malchrowicz-Mośkoetal.,2019).Apartfromthepreviouslycitedsportingcontexts,theMotivationsofMarathonersScale(MOMS),developedbyMastersetal.(1993),hasbeenusedindifferentrunningcontexts,suchasadventureraces(DoppelmayrandMolkenthin,2004),a5kmrunningevent(BellandStephenson,2014),halfmarathons(BellandStephenson,2014;Malchrowicz-Mośkoetal.,2018),andultramarathons(DoppelmayrandMolkenthin,2004;Frick,2011;Malchrowicz-MośkoandRozmiarek,2018;Waśkiewiczetal.,2019a),andfortryingtodistinguishathletes’reasonsforparticipationdependingonthedistance,comparinghalfmarathon,fullmarathon,andultramarathonrunners’reasonsforparticipation(Hansonetal.,2015).Othervariablessuchasthetypeofevent,traditionalsportseventsvs.non-traditionalsportsevents(BuningandWalker,2016),cause-relatedvs.non-cause-relatedenduranceevents(Rundioetal.,2014),first-timemarathoners’motivations,andpre-racedropoutreasons(HavenarandLochbaum,2007)havebeenanalyzedusingtheMOMSscale,inordertodistinguishandunderstandwhatdrivesathletestoparticipateinthoseevents.Alongtheselines,someresearchhastriedtoclusterathletesaccordingtotheirmotivationalprofiles(OglesandMasters,2007;Parra-Camachoetal.,2019)oraccordingtotheirfamilycontext,forinstance(Goodselletal.,2013),inanattempttoestablishdifferenttargetgroupsthatmaybeconsideredwhenorganizingasportsenduranceevent. Athletes’motivationisthepsychologicalaspectthathasbeenanalyzedmost,sinceithelpstoexplaintheirparticipationinamarathon(Ruiz-JuanandZarauzSancho,2014).Severalstudieshavefocusedonthemotivationofrecreationalrunnersduetotheimportancetheyplaceonparticipatinginsuchevents(León-Guereñoetal.,2020).Manyofthemhavebeenconductedonthebasisofself-determinationtheory(DeciandRyan,2000),wherebyathletes’motivationisdividedintotwomaindimensions,namely,intrinsicandextrinsicmotivation(Ruiz-JuanandZarauzSancho,2014).Nevertheless,thecreationofMOMS(Mastersetal.,1993)wasonemajordevelopment,showingamultidimensionalquestionnairedesignedspecificallytoassessmarathoners’motives.MOMS,asitsname“MotivationsofMarathonersScale”suggests,wascreatedspecificallyinordertomeasuremarathonathletes’reasonsforparticipation,andtherefore,athletes’motivationshavebeenanalyzedinmanymarathonsfromwithindifferentsocialcontexts,e.g.,inGreece(Nikolaidisetal.,2019),Poland(Malchrowicz-Mośkoetal.,2019;Waśkiewiczetal.,2019a),Spain(Ruiz-JuanandZarauzSancho,2014;Parra-Camachoetal.,2019),andespeciallyintheUnitedStates(OglesandMasters,2003;Rundioetal.,2014;Hansonetal.,2015;BuningandWalker,2016),thecontextinwhichthescalewasinitiallycreated.Thevariablesassociatedwithdifferentreasonsforparticipatinghavealsobeendiverse,withthefollowingbeingthemostanalyzedvariables:runners’sex(Waśkowski,2011;Summersetal.,2016;Malchrowicz-MośkoandRozmiarek,2018;Malchrowicz-MośkoandPoczta,2019)andrunners’age(OglesandMasters,2003;ReedandGibbs,2016;Pocztaetal.,2018;Nikolaidisetal.,2019).Thisconstitutesanattempttodescribewhetherthereasonsforapersontakingpartinanenduranceeventdependonathletes’sexandage.Othervariablessuchasyears’experiencerunning(OglesandMasters,2003;Malchrowicz-Mośkoetal.,2020)ortrainingexperience(Waśkiewiczetal.,2019b)andathletes’performance(Ferreretal.,2015;Nikolaidisetal.,2019)havealsobeenassociatedwithathletes’motivations. Nevertheless,maritalstatushasyettobeanalyzedinrelationtomarathonathletes’participationmotives.Takingintoaccounthowpeoples’livescanchangedependingontheirmaritalstatus,andthechangesthatmaytakeplacefrombeingsingletobeingmarried,andalsofromthislattermaritalstatustobeingdivorced,itwouldseemtobeaninterestingvariablewhenanalyzingathletes’participationmotivesinasportingevent.Thismaybeevenmorerelevantwhenthesportseventinquestionisamarathon,asthisisaverydemandingrace,withaheavyloadortrainingsessionsthatneedtobecompleted.Goodselletal.(2013),inanAmericansample,concludedthatfamilycontextwasanimportantinfluenceonpeoples’motivationbehindrunningandthatitshouldbetakenintoaccountbyresearchersandthosewhowishtoencouragelong-termengagementinactiveleisure. AsregardsthePolishsocialcontext,masssportseventsandtheideologyofhealthismhavebeendevelopinginthelastfewyears,inviewofhowPoles’physicalactivityhasinturnincreasedoverthelasttwodecades.Socio-culturalandeconomicaspectshaveinfluencedthisgrowthofphysicalactivity,withPolesnowbeingbettereducated,beingwealthier,andhavingmorefreetimeforleisure,havingseentheirqualityoflifeincrease(Malchrowicz-MośkoandPoczta,2019).Withinthiscontext,PoleshadtakenWesterncountries’lifestylesonboard,andreasonsfortakingpartinsportseventssuchasmarathonshaveincreasedexponentially.Thus,itisespeciallyinterestingtounderstandthisconstruct,sinceahugesocialchangetookplacewithinaquite-shortperiod,andathletes’motivationhasalsochangedtoo. Reviewingtheliteratureonthesubjectshowedthatmostpreviousresearchhasfocusedonothercountries(OglesandMasters,1995,2003;Rundioetal.,2014;Nikolaidisetal.,2019)ratherthanspecificallyonthePolishsocialcontext,eventhoughmarathoners’motivationalcharacteristicswereanalyzedinPolandover10yearsago(Waśkiewiczetal.,2019b).Withthisresearch,weattempttoprovideup-to-dateinformationaboutathletes’reasonsforparticipatinginmarathons.Ontheotherhand,maritalstatushasyettobesuitablyaddressed,thisbeinganinnovativeperspectiveputforwardbythisresearch.Therefore,inthisresearch,themainaimwillbetoshowwhyamateurathletestakepartinmarathonsinPoland,andtothisend,runners’motivationswillbeanalyzedandassociatedwithparticipants’sex,age,andmaritalstatus–thislastmentionedfactor,aswehavealreadymentioned,hastendedtobeunderestimatedinliterature.Inlinewiththisobjective,themainhypothesisofthisresearchisthatamateurathletes’motivationalaspectsdifferaccordingtotheirage,sexand,maritalstatus. MaterialsandMethods ParticipantsandStudyDesign ApprovalwasobtainedfromtheEthicsCommitteeoftheUniversityofDeusto,Spain,andthestudywasconsistentwiththeHelsinkideclarationof2013.ParticipantsweretreatedethicallyundertheAmericanPsychologicalAssociationcodeofethicsregardingconsent,anonymity,andresponses.Itisacross-sectionalstudy,whosetotalsamplecomprised493participantsinthePoznanMarathon;bothfemales(n=144)andmales(n=349)filledoutthequestionnaire.Allofthemprovidedwritteninformedconsentforparticipationinthesurvey,withthoseathleteswhodidnotultimatelyparticipateintheeventbeingexcludedfromthestudy.Participantswererecruitedviaintentionedselection.Individualstookpartinthe20thPoznanMarathoninPolandinOctober2019.ThePoznanMarathonisoneofthebiggestmarathonsinPolandand,infact,oneofthebiggestincentralEurope.2019wasthe20thyearthecompetitionwasheld.Forthefirst10yearsitwasorganized,itwasthepremierrunningeventinPoland,and6,092marathonerscompletedthePoznanMarathonin2019. Measurements SociodemographicState Participants,asshowninTable1,wereaskedaboutsex(male,female),agerange(ranges<18,19–25,26–35,36–50,51–70years),andmaritalstatus,todeterminethemostacceptedstatus(single,married,divorced). TABLE1 Table1.Columnprofileaccordingtoathletes’agerangesandsex. Athletes’Motivation ThePolishversionofthemultidimensionalMOMSscalewasused(Dybała,2013),developedinitiallybyMastersetal.(1993).Athletes’motivationwasmeasuredvia56itemsorreasonsforparticipatinginamarathon,organizedusingaseven-pointLikertscale,withthehighestscorebeing7andtheleast-valuedmotiverated1.Thisscaleshowsninedimensionsthatauthorsdividedintofourmainbroadergroupsofmotive:(1)psychologicalmotives,involvingself-esteem,psychologicalcoping,andlifemeaning;(2)achievement-relatedmotives,includingpersonalgoalachievementandcompetition;(3)socialmotives,showingrecognitionandaffiliationmotives;and(4)physicalhealthmotives,includinggeneralhealthorientationandweightconcern(Mastersetal.,1993). Procedure TheonlinesurveywassetupusingGoogleDocstechnology(Šmigelskasetal.,2019).AthleteswerecontactedviatheInternetthesameweekendthatthe20thPKOPoznanMarathonwastakingplaceinOctober2019andwereprovidedwithdetailedinformationabouttheresearchbytheorganizers.Previously,theeventorganizerwassuitablyinformedaboutthisstudy,whichtheypassedontoalltheparticipantsinthemarathon. DataAnalysis ThestatisticalanalysiswascarriedoutbyRCoreTeaminthisquantitativeanalysis.APrincipalComponentAnalysis(PCA)variablegraphwascalculatedtoshowanoutlineoftheassociationanddirectionofthenineMOMSdimensions(Shahidetal.,2016),thussummarizingtheinformationobtainedfromthecorrelationmatrix(SupplementaryTableA1)andgivinganoverallviewofthecorrelationsamongathletes’differentreasonsfortakingpartinamarathon.One-wayANOVAwasusedinordertoanalyzetheassociationbetweenathletes’reasonsforparticipatingandthethreeindependentvariablesselectedforthisresearch:age,sex,andmaritalstatus.NormalityintermsofdistributionwasverifiedbytheShapiro–Wilktest,andtheassumptionofhomogeneityofvariancewasascertainedusingLevene’stest.Multivariateanalysisofvariancewasappliedtoascertaintheimportanceofmaritalstatus(single,married,divorced),agerange(<18,19–25,26–35,36–50,51–70),andsex(female,male)differencesintermsofMOMSvariables.Multiplepost-hoccomparisonswithBonferronicorrectionsandetasquare(η2)werealsoused,thelatterbeingamultivariatemeasureofeffectsize.Theresultswereconsideredstatisticallysignificantwhenp≤0.05. Results Theresultsobtainedfromthisresearchattemptedtodescribethereasonsforparticipationbyamateurathletesandtheirassociationwithrunners’maritalstatus,sex,andage.Figure1–thevariablesgraph(PCA)–showedanoutlineoftheassociationanddirectionoftheninedimensionsorreasonsforparticipationonthepartofmarathonrunners.Thehorizontaldimensionshowed23.3%ofthevariation,andtheverticaldimension,19.6%,thustotaling42.9%ofthetotalvariation.Figure1presentseachmotivationaldimensionofathletesrepresentedbyanarrow,thusshowingthemotivesanddirectiontakenbyparticipants,summarizedintwoaxes,enablingustogainaninsightintoparticipants’motivation.Horizontalandverticaldimensionsshowtwogroupsreferringtodimension,displayingthemainmotivesanddirectiontakenbythoseparticipatinginamarathon. FIGURE1 Figure1.PrincipalComponentAnalysis(PCA)graphofvariables,showingdataforthenineMotivationsofMarathonersScale(MOMS)dimensions. Thehorizontalormaindimensionshowedopposingdirectionsintermsofreasonsforparticipation,withhealthorientation,weightconcern,personalgoalachievement,andcompetitioninonedirectionandpsychologicalcoping,lifemeaning,andself-esteemintheotherdirection.Intheverticaldimension,Figure1showshowcompetitionandrecognitionaretobefoundontheupperpartofthegraph,whileconversely,healthreasonsforparticipatingareonthelowerpartofthegraph.TheopposingdirectionsofpersonalgoalachievementandaffiliationcanbeobservedontheupperpartofthegraphinFigure1. Table2showsthatpersonalgoalachievement(p<0.05),competition,andpsychologicalcoping(p<0.001)evidencedstatisticaldifferencesbetweenmaleandfemalerunners,showingsmalltomediumeffectsizevalues.Conversely,therestoftheMOMSdimensionsdidnotshowanysignificantdifferencesintermsofsex. TABLE2 Table2.One-wayANOVAofnineMotivationsofMarathonersScale(MOMS)dimensionsaccordingtosex. Table3showsstatisticaldifferencesaccordingtoagerangesinthreeMOMSdimensions:healthorientation(p<0.001),withamediumtolargeeffectsize,andaffiliation(p<0.05)andself-esteem(p<0.05),withsmalltomediumeffectsize.Conversely,therestofthedimensionsdidnotshowanysignificantdifferencesaccordingtoage. TABLE3 Table3.One-wayANOVAofnineMOMSdimensionsintermsofage. Table4didnotshowsignificantdifferencesintermsofthenineMOMSdimensions(all,p>0.05).Inaddition,theeffectsizevaluewassmalltomediumintermsofthenineMOMSdimensionsaccordingtomaritalstatus. TABLE4 Table4.One-wayANOVAofnineMOMSdimensions’associationwithathletes’maritalstatus. Table5showsthecomparisonbetweenmotivationsofmenandwomenbasedontheirmaritalstatusaccordingtothenineMOMSdimensions.Nostatisticallysignificantdifferenceswerefoundinanyofthedimensions(all,p<0.05). TABLE5 Table5.MultivariateanalysiscomparingmaritalstatusandagerangeaccordingtoMOMSdimensions:comparisonbetweenwomenandmen. Discussion Theaimofthisresearchwastodescribewhyathletesdecidetotakepartinamarathon,i.e.,runners’reasonsforparticipation,focusingonsomecharacteristicsofparticipants,suchastheirage,sex,andmaritalstatus,withsomeofthesevariablesbeingpreviouslyanalyzedinotherenduranceraces(Nikolaidisetal.,2019;Waśkiewiczetal.,2019b)andinothersocialcontexts(BuningandWalker,2016;Malchrowicz-Mośkoetal.,2019;Parra-Camachoetal.,2019).Themainfindingsshowedthatsomeofthevariablesanalyzed,namely,sexandage,influencethereasonsforparticipationbyamateurathletes,whilemaritalstatusdidnotevidenceanysuchassociation.Aspreviousresearchshows,ageandsexhavebeenanalyzedinabinomialway,inordertoascertainwhethersex–agemakesadifference,howfaritextends,orinwhichdirectionthesedifferencesexistinmarathonraceparticipants(ReedandGibbs,2016;Nikolaidisetal.,2018).Oneofthemostanalyzedvariableshasbeenathletes’sexwhentryingtounderstandenduranceathletes’reasonsforpracticingtheirsport.Inthiscase,thisstudyshowsthatamateurathletes’reasonsforparticipatinginamarathoninPolandaresignificantlydifferentinthreeoftheMOMSdimensionsaccordingtosex,i.e.,maleamateurrunners’reasonsforparticipatinginamarathonaresignificantlygreaterintermsofpersonalgoalachievement(p<0.005)andcompetition(p<0.001)comparedtofemalerunners.Atthesametime,femaleamateurrunners’reasonsforparticipationaregreaterthaninmenintermsofpsychologicalcoping(p<0.001).TheseresultsarepartiallyinkeepingwithStempień(2014),whofoundthatnon-performance-relatedvariableswerepreferredbyPolishladyrunners,withresultsshowingthatmaleandfemalerunners’reasonsforparticipatinginamarathonwerestatisticallydifferent.Alongthesamelines,femalemarathonersintheclassicAthensraceshowedgreaterreasonsforparticipationinpsychologicalcopingandself-esteemthanmalerunners,althoughpersonalgoalachievementwasfoundtobeameaningfulcharacteristicintheGreekcontexts(Nikolaidisetal.,2019).Conversely,inourresearch,personalgoalachievementwasmalerunners’keyfactorintakingpartinamarathon,andlifemeaningwasasignificantreasonforparticipationonthepartofPolishfemalemarathoners.IntheUSAcontext,OglesandMasters(1995)analyzedathletes’reasonsforparticipationintermsofsex,andtheresultsobtainedsupportourfindings,i.e.,womenandmendifferintheirreasonsforparticipatinginamarathon,showingthatweightconcern,affiliation,self-esteem,lifemeaning,andpsychologicalcopingweremorekeyfactorsforwomenthanformen;ontheotherhand,healthorientation,personalgoalachievement,competition,andrecognitionwouldexplainmalerunners’participationinmarathonevents–resultsthatcoincidepartiallywiththefindingsofourresearch.Withintheseresults,inthePolishcontext,psychologicalcopingwasthemotivethatshowedstatisticaldifferencesamongwomen,whilepersonalgoalachievementandcompetitionwerethemainreasonsforparticipatingamongmen. Ourresultscoincidepartiallywithpreviousresearch,findinganageeffectwithregardtothereasonsforparticipatinginamarathon,withthemotivesassociatedwithcompetitionbeinggreaterinyoungerathletesthaninolderrunners(Pocztaetal.,2018;Nikolaidisetal.,2019).Likewise,inourresearch,marathoners’reasonsforparticipatingweredifferentdependingontheirage,withtheseresultsbeingofgreaterimportancealongsidepersonalgoalachievementinyoungerathletesthaninolderones,inlinewithPocztaetal.(2018)andNikolaidisetal.(2019).However,ourresearchshowedthatathletes’reasonsforparticipationalsodifferstatisticallyage-wiseinhealthorientation,withmoreconcernabouthealthbeingshowntheoldertherunnersget,i.e.,theyoungestrunnersevidencedthelowestscoresorreasonsforparticipatinginthisdimension,whileitgainsimportanceasathletesgetolder.Weightconcernwasalsodifferentaccordingtoathletes’age,withthe36–50agerangeofathletesshowingthemostconcernaboutthisdimension.Conversely,personalgoalachievementlessenedinimportanceasagerose,andaffiliationalsoshoweddifferencesamongageranges,withthisdimensionbeingofgreaterconcernasathletesgetolder.Self-esteemshowedstatisticaldifferencesamongageranges,withadecreasingtrendtheolderathletesget.Therefore,ourresultsare,toagreatextent,inlinewithpreviousresults,showing,ingeneral,thatyoungerathletesfocusonresultsandpersonalreasonsforparticipating,whileolderrunnersfocusmoreonmeetingotherrunnersandsocialreasonsoronhealth-relatedreasons(Pocztaetal.,2018). Littleresearchhasbeenconductedlinkingrunners’motivationsandfamilycontext,althoughthisisaveryimportantissue.Moreover,athletes’motivationsneedtobeunderstoodbeyondpsychologicalaspects,andsocialfactorsneedtobetakenintoconsideration(Goodselletal.,2013).Formanyamateurrunners,amarathonisademandingactivity,andwhilebeingimmersedinit,theyentertherunningsocialworldandundergoaprocessinvolvingidentitytransformation.Thisprocessencompassesimmersionintoazonethatisoftenoutsidethepartnershipofmarriageandincludesabsorptionintosocialnetworksthatareunlimitedintimeandplaceand,consequently,mayjeopardizethemarriage(Shahidetal.,2016)–areasonwhymaritalstatuscouldbeassociatedwithathletes’participationmotives.Withinrunners’socialcontext,marriage,maritalstatusorthebirthofachildmighthaveagreatinfluenceonathletes’motivationalaspects(Goodselletal.,2013).Ourresultsshowedthatmaritalstatus,i.e.,beingmarried,divorced,orsingle,wasnotsignificantinthecaseofanyofthereasonsrelatedtotheMOMSdimensions.NoneofthereasonsidentifiedbytheMOMSshowedsignificantdifferenceswhentheinteractionbetweenage,maritalstatus,andsexwastakenintoaccount.TheseresultsareinlinewithGoodselletal.(2013),astheydidnotfindastatisticallysignificantrelationshipbetweenmaritalstatusandtheintentiontorun.However,theydidfindasignificantassociationinathletestocontinuingrunning(Goodselletal.,2013).Lastly,basedontheseresults,maritalstatuswasnotfoundtoexertasignificantassociationinanyofthemotivationsexpressedbymarathonrunners,aftertakingintoaccountfactorssuchassexorage. However,theseresultsneedtobeviewedcarefully,sincetheydescribethereasonsforparticipationinamarathonwithinaspecificsocialcontext,andtheresearchwascarriedoutusingacross-sectionaldesignthatdidnotallowforanycausalinferencesamongthevariables.Moreover,personalvariablessuchastypeofjoborhealthstatusandvariablessuchasthebirthofachildorthenumberofchildreninthefamilyhavenotbeentakenintoaccountwithinthefamilycontext–thesearesomelimitationsoftheresearch.Infutureresearch,collectingdataatdifferenttimesormomentswouldprovideawiderviewoftherangeofathletes’reasonsfortakingpartinanenduranceevent(Nikolaidisetal.,2018).Moreover,affiliationscouldbetakenintoaccountfromaculturalstandpointinfutureresearch(i.e.,religion,race),thusprovidingmorespecificinformationassociatedwithfamilyandculturalcontext,inordertohelpunderstanditsrelationshipwithathletes’reasonsforrunning(Södergrenetal.,2008).However,analyzingthevariableofmaritalstatuscanbeconsideredastrengthofthisresearch. Accordingtothisstudy,Polishamateurrunners’reasonsforparticipatinginamarathonaredifferentdependingonwhethertheathleteismaleorfemaleandontheirbeingyoungerorolder,althoughmaritalstatusdidnotshowanysuchassociation.Ourresultssuggestthatsportingeventorganizers,healthpromotionspecialists,andcoachesshouldconsiderhowfemalerunnersevidencestatisticallygreatermotivationthanmeninpersonalandsocialdimensionssuchaspsychologicalcoping,whilemenaremoremotivatedwithresult-orienteddimensionssuchaspersonalgoalachievement,competition,andrecognition,inlinewithpreviousresearch(Waśkiewiczetal.,2019b).Itisthusunderstoodfromtheseresultsthatwomenmaygainmorepsychologicalbenefitsfromrunningthanmen(ReedandGibbs,2016). Conclusion Inconclusion,thisstudyshowsthatamateurrunners’sexandagemattertoagreaterorlesserextentwhenitcomestotheirreasonsforparticipation.However,norelationshipwasfoundbetweenmaritalstatusandathletes’motivationaldimensions.Itwouldthereforebeinterestingforeventorganizerstousethisinformationwhenreleasingorpromotingsuchsportingeventsasamarathon,inordertoensureparticipants’continuedsupportforthesetypesofcompetitionbymeetingdifferentparticipants’needsandreasonsforparticipation. DataAvailabilityStatement Alldatasetsgeneratedforthisstudyareincludedinthearticle/SupplementaryMaterial. EthicsStatement ThestudiesinvolvinghumanparticipantswerereviewedandapprovedbytheEthicsCommitteeoftheUniversityofDeusto,Spain.Writteninformedconsenttoparticipateinthisstudywasprovidedbytheparticipants’legalguardian/nextofkin. AuthorContributions PL-G,EM-M,andMT-Scontributedtotheconceptionanddesignofthestudy.PL-GandAC-Borganizedthedatabase,performedthestatisticalanalysis,andwrotethefirstdraftofthemanuscript.PL-G,AC-B,andEM-Mwrotesectionsofthemanuscript.Allauthorscontributedtomanuscriptrevisionandreadandapprovedthesubmittedversion. ConflictofInterest Theauthorsdeclarethattheresearchwasconductedintheabsenceofanycommercialorfinancialrelationshipsthatcouldbeconstruedasapotentialconflictofinterest. 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GoogleScholar Keywords:running,marathoners,motivation,age,sexdifference,maritalstatus Citation:León-GuereñoP,Tapia-SerranoMA,Castañeda-BabarroAandMalchrowicz-MośkoE(2020)DoSex,Age,andMaritalStatusInfluencetheMotivationsofAmateurMarathonRunners?ThePoznanMarathonCaseStudy.Front.Psychol.11:2151.doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02151 Received:20June2020;Accepted:31July2020;Published:31August2020. Editedby: RubénManeiro,PontificalUniversityofSalamanca,Spain Reviewedby: JuanJoséSalinero,CamiloJoséCelaUniversity,Spain BeatKnechtle,UniversityHospitalZurich,Switzerland Copyright©2020León-Guereño,Tapia-Serrano,Castañeda-BabarroandMalchrowicz-Mośko.Thisisanopen-accessarticledistributedunderthetermsoftheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense(CCBY).Theuse,distributionorreproductioninotherforumsispermitted,providedtheoriginalauthor(s)andthecopyrightowner(s)arecreditedandthattheoriginalpublicationinthisjournaliscited,inaccordancewithacceptedacademicpractice.Nouse,distributionorreproductionispermittedwhichdoesnotcomplywiththeseterms. *Correspondence:MiguelAngelTapia-Serrano,[email protected];EwaMalchrowicz-Mośko,[email protected] ThisarticleispartoftheResearchTopic AdvancesinSportScience:LatestFindingsandNewScientificProposals Viewall 28Articles Peoplealsolookedat Download