Youth Female Ice Hockey Players’ Enjoyment and Commitment to Sport

The purpose of this study was to identify sport-specific predictors of youth female athletes’ sport commitment and sport enjoyment. Based on the expectancy-value model, athletic identity and gender stereotypes were hypothesized to predict sport commitment and sport enjoyment in ice hockey, which has a masculine gender association. Participants consisted of 130 (89.2% Caucasian) youth female ice hockey players (Mage = 11.7, SD = 2.6). They completed measures of athletic identity; personal gender beliefs; perceived gender beliefs of parents, teammates, siblings, and the general population; and two outcome measures: sport commitment and sport enjoyment. The prediction model for sport commitment was significant, F(7, 122) = 9.56, p < .001, and accounted for 35.4% of the variance. The prediction model for sport enjoyment was also significant, F(7, 122) = 2.25, p < .01, and accounted for 11.5% of the variance. Overall, youth female ice hockey players held pro-feminine beliefs about competence and values of girls in hockey. Participants’ personal gender beliefs correlated moderately with perceived gender beliefs of their (socializers) parents, teammates, and the general population (r = .54–.56), suggesting youth female ice hockey players’ pro-feminine beliefs might be informed by these social influences. However, two multiple mediation analyses found no support for the hypotheses that personally held stereotypes mediated the link between all four socially based gender stereotypes and enjoyment and commitment.