Motives for Following Sports Events among Physical Education Students from Bosnia and Hercegovina and Slovenia

Abstract

A sports result takes on its meaning only when the public reacts to it after attending a sporting event. In order to determine and compare attitudes toward attending such events, students from two different cultural backgrounds were invited to participate in the study: 156 students from the Faculty of Sport in Ljubljana and 82 students from the Pedagogical faculty, Department of Physical Education and Sports in Bihać. They were asked to complete a questionnaire containing 25 variables on the motives for attending sporting events. The respondents rated the importance of the motives with scores from 1 to 5 (1—not the reason at all; 2—not the reason; 3—occasionally true for me; 4—true for me; 5—absolutely true). The obtained results were ranked and compared between the students of different faculties and between genders. The results showed that Bosnian and Slovenian students differed in 11 out of 25 motives. Statistically significant gender differences were found for only two out of 25 motives. Differences between Bosnian and Slovenian students were also found in the ranking of the importance of the motives as well as in their evaluation. The results show that cultural, national, and mentality differences between the two groups are reflected in the motives for following sporting events.