Influence of university student demographics on their attitude towards dance as a physical activity / Lim Shin Hui

• Main Author: Lim, Shin Hui
• Format: Thesis
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: LB2300 Higher Education
• Online Access: http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/15073/1/Lim_Shin_Hui.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/15073/2/Lim_Shin_Hui.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/15073/

The status of dance is intangible in Malaysia. The inadequate empirical findings specifically in Malaysia had led the need for deep understanding of students’ attitudes towards dance at university. The present study examined the university students’ attitude domains which are cognitive, affective and behavioral domain towards dance as physical activity based on their demographic factors, such as gender, ethnic group, age group and years of dance experience. The causal-comparative research design was used in this study. A total of 310 students participated in this study. A questionnaire was developed and a pilot study was administrated to assess the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Descriptive analysis and one-way MANOVA were performed to answer the research questions. Prior to inferential testing, the assumptions of one-way MANOVA was achieved. Descriptive statistics revealed that cognitive domain obtained the highest mean score, followed by affective domain, and lastly behavioral domain. One-way MANOVA results revealed that there are significant differences on students’ attitude domains towards dance between males and females, F (3,306) = 3.598, p = .014; partial eta squared = .034, female students significantly showed better attitude in cognitive domain compared to male students. Besides that, there are significant differences on attitude domains based on ethnic groups, F (9,740) = 2.009, p = .036; partial eta squared = .019; Malay students significantly showed better attitude than other ethnic groups in cognitive domain. The results revealed that there are significant differences in attitude domains based on years of dance experience F (6,610) = 3.024, p = .006; partial eta squared = .029, students with more than six years of dance experience showed a better attitude in the affective and the behavioral domain than students with less than six years of dance experience. However, the results showed that there were no significant differences between students in age groups. Thus, it can be concluded that there are inequivalent in attitude domains towards dance based on students’ gender, ethnic group and years of dance experience. The findings of this present research will be served as an important reference for parents, dance teachers or educator, individual, society and Ministry of Education.