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Looking At Gender Differences Through The Lens Of Sport Spectators, Lynn Ridinger, Daniel C. Funk

Human Movement Sciences & Special Education Faculty Publications

This paper explores common assumptions about the intrinsic differences between male and female consumers within a subset of leisure consumption - sport spectating. This research utilized the Sports Interest Inventory (SII) (Funk, Mahony & Ridinger, 2002) to examine differences between spectators (N = 959) attending men's and women's basketball games at a NCAA Division I institution. MANOVA results revealed nine differences for Team-Gender, seven differences for Spectator-Gender, and three interaction effects. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that three core interest factors (university pride, team interest, and vicarious achievement) explained a significant proportion of variance in commitment and attendance behavior for …