Gender and cultural differences in sport participation-related psychological profiles of secondary school children in four nations

Competitive anxiety (CA), task and ego orientation (TEO), and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation were studied in 1086 secondary school children from Hong Kong (HK), Britain, Hungary, and Romania. Statistically significant nation by gender interactions emerged for TEO as well as extrinsic motivation. Apart from HK where the highest scores for TEO were recorded, boys generally scored higher than girls on all dependent measures except CA for which the inverse results emerged. Children in the four nations showed statistically significantly different response profile in the studied measures. This research substantiates the need for local/cultural research data in developing sport education programmes.