Abstract

The motives for exercise differ among sportsmen and women. It depends on what an individual aims to attain or avoid through exercise. There seems to be some agreement in sports sociology research on different patterns of socialization into sports amongst male and female athletes. However, there is no consensus on whether gender role orientations play a significant role in female’s and male’s motives for participation in exercise. Therefore, this study examined exercise motives and gender role orientation among sportsmen and women at the University of Ibadan. The descriptive survey research design was employed. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 212 athletes at the university. A standardised questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. Data from the questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive analysis and inferential statistics of independent t-test and multiple regression to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significant level. Most (33.5%) of the respondents were between 18-20 years. The majority (57.5%) of the respondents were males. The study revealed the prediction of gender role orientation on exercise motives of sportsmen and women at the University of Ibadan (F (9,202) =1.764, p<0.05). It also revealed that there was a gender difference in the exercise motives of sportsmen and women at the University of Ibadan.