Sport as a vehicle for socialization and maintenance of cultural identity: International students attending American universities

Immigrants can utilize sport as a vehicle for maintaining cultural identity. Conversely, sport participation provides immigrants with opportunities for adopting an entirely new culture. Previous research also suggests that sport provides individuals with opportunities for attaining social capital. While this can be a beneficial situation for some individuals, sport is also promoting elitism and serving as a powerful mechanism for exclusion. Globalization has led large numbers of foreign nationals to seek educational opportunities in the United States. Due to the increase in the number of international students and the lack of empirical studies, the need to study their participation in sport is greater than ever. It is critical that sport managers ensure that these students are provided opportunities for socialization and cultural expression through sport. Thus far, there have been no holistic approaches that have examined international students with regards to socialization, cultural identity, and adaptation to multicultural environments through sport. The present study is grounded in sociological theories that are widely recognized. For the purpose of the study, a scale measuring cultural identity and adaptation to multicultural environments was developed based on literature review, exploratory factor analysis, and parallel analysis. The two factors retained; cultural maintenance through sport and adaptation to a multicultural environment through sport, were found to be valid and reliable measures of sport participation behavior among international students in the United States. A MANOVA test revealed that males scored significantly higher on the cultural maintenance through sport factor than females. Practitioners involved in campus recreational sport are encouraged to utilize findings from the current study to enhance their programming efforts for international students. Furthermore, implications for sport managers are discussed with regards to promoting cultural diversity and inclusion.

[1]  G. Whitaker,et al.  Male Coach/Female Coach: a Theoretical Analysis of the Female Sport Experience , 1985 .

[2]  Mark S. Mizruchi,et al.  LOCAL SPORTS TEAMS AND CELEBRATION OF COMMUNITY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE HOME ADVANTAGE , 1985 .

[3]  Hasan Kosebalaban.  Turkish media and sport coverage: marking the boundaries of national identity , 2004 .

[4]  P. Kline.  The handbook of psychological testing, 2nd ed. , 1993 .

[5]  Daniel Burdsey.  Contested conceptions of identity, community and multiculturalism in the staging of alternative sport events: a case study of the Amsterdam World Cup football tournament , 2008 .

[6]  M. Waters.  Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second-Generation Black Immigrants in New York City , 1994, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the New Immigration.

[7]  J. Stevens.  Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences , 1986 .

[8]  Tracy Taylor,et al.  Adolescent sport, recreation and physical education: experiences of recent arrivals to Canada , 2005 .

[9]  Peter M. Bentler,et al.  Estimates and tests in structural equation modeling. , 1995 .

[10]  P. Blau.  Exchange and Power in Social Life , 1964 .

[11]  Galen T. Trail,et al.  Relationships among Spectator Gender, Motives, Points of Attachment, and Sport Preference , 2005 .

[12]  Paul Kline,et al.  Intelligence: The Psychometric View , 1990 .

[13]  L. Mâsse,et al.  The Structure of Ethnic Identity of Young Adolescents from Diverse Ethnocultural Groups , 1999 .

[14]  N. Kropf,et al.  Leisure Activity, Ethnic Preservation, and Cultural Integration of Older Korean Americans , 2002, Social Work Practice with the Asian American Elderly.

[15]  J. Stevens,et al.  Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences, 4th ed. , 2002 .

[16]  Brian S. Gordon,et al.  Status of Participation in Physical Activity among International Students Attending Colleges and Universities in the United States. , 2008 .

[17]  K. Armstrong.  Race and sport consumption motivations: a preliminary investigation of a Black Consumers' Sport Motivation Scale. , 2002 .

[18]  Richard Alba,et al.  Rethinking Assimilation Theory for a New Era of Immigration 1 , 1997, The International migration review.

[19]  Galen T. Trail,et al.  Ethnic identification, acculturation and sports identification of Latinos in the United States , 2007 .

[20]  W. Velicer,et al.  Comparison of five rules for determining the number of components to retain. , 1986 .

[21]  R. Hoyle.  Structural equation modeling: concepts, issues, and applications , 1997 .

[22]  Edwin Gómez.  The Ethnicity and Public Recreation Participation Model © , 2002 .

[23]  Yomee Lee,et al.  A New Voice , 2005 .

[24]  Konstantinos Alexandris,et al.  The Role of Recreational Sport in the Adaptation of First Generation Immigrants in the United States , 2004 .

[25]  J. Heo,et al.  “I don't want to feel like a stranger”: Korean students who play basketball seriously , 2007 .

[26]  G. Sage,et al.  Sociology of North American sport , 1978 .

[27]  K. Dion,et al.  Gender and Acculturation in Relation to Traditionalism: Perceptions of Self and Parents Among Chinese Students , 1999 .

[28]  Lewis R. Aiken,et al.  Rating Scales and Checklists: Evaluating Behavior, Personality, and Attitudes , 1996 .

[29]  M. Gordon,et al.  Assimilation in American Life. The Role of Race, Religion, and National Origins , 1966 .

[30]  P. Kline.  Handbook of Psychological Testing , 2013 .

[31]  M. C. Zea,et al.  The abbreviated multidimensional acculturation scale: empirical validation with two Latino/Latina samples. , 2003, Cultural diversity & ethnic minority psychology.

[32]  A. Portes,et al.  Immigration Theory for a New Century: Some Problems and Opportunities 1 , 1997, The International migration review.

[33]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis , 1972 .

[34]  M. Barron,et al.  Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion, and National Origins. , 1964 .

[35]  H. Blumer,et al.  Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method , 1988 .

[36]  M. Bouffard,et al.  Assessing Item Content-Relevance in Sport Psychology Scale-Construction Research: Issues and Recommendations , 1999 .

[37]  H. Kaiser,et al.  Little Jiffy, Mark Iv , 1974 .

[38]  Edwin Gómez.  The Ethnicity and Public Recreation Participation (EPRP) Model©: An Assessment of Unidimensionality and Overall Fit , 2006 .

[39]  R. Cattell.  The Scree Test For The Number Of Factors. , 1966, Multivariate behavioral research.

[40]  O. Weiss.  IDENTITY REINFORCEMENT IN SPORT , 2001 .

[41]  Monica Z. Li,et al.  Transnationalism, Leisure, and Chinese Graduate Students in the United States , 2006 .

[42]  James C. Hayton,et al.  Factor Retention Decisions in Exploratory Factor Analysis: a Tutorial on Parallel Analysis , 2004 .

[43]  Judith B. Bachay.  Ethnic Identity Development and Urban Haitian Adolescents. , 1998 .

[44]  Robert E. Washington,et al.  Sport and Society , 2001 .