Professionalization of Attitude Toward Play Among Canadian School Pupils as a Function of Sex, Grade, and Athletic Participation

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Abstract
A group administered questionnaire was employed to attempt to replicate the Webb study on the professionalization of attitude toward play, and determine whether the variables of sex, grade level, and degree of athletic participation were related to the development of such an orientation. Following administration of the survey to 567 Canadian schoolchildren in Grades 8, 9, 10 and 12, the following conclusions were found to be justified: (a) it was apparent that the results of the present study were substantially parallel to those determined by Webb in the U. S. setting; (b) the males were more professionalized in their attitudes toward play than the females, in view of their greater emphasis upon achievement oriented evaluative criteria in the milieu of play; (c) the professionalization of attitude toward play increased among the male students as they progressed through school; (d) those respondents who had the greatest degree of involvement in athletic participation were more professionalized in their orientations toward physical activity; (e) participation in intramural programs appeared to act as a damper upon the development of a professionalized attitude toward play, regardless of the level of personal involvement in other sport forms. These results were interpreted to indicate a strong linkage between the latent socialization experiences in the high school milieu or in the direct or indirect association of the individual with athletic programs, and the development of value orientations concurrent with those emphasized in the adult work role.

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