Factors Influencing Female Participation in Sporting Activities at Senior High School Level in Bia West District, Western North Region, Ghana

Participation in sporting activities comes with great benefits to both male and female students regarding mental, physical and school performance. However, involving female students in sporting activities has been a serious problem for teachers at the high school level. The current study therefore aimed at examining factors influencing female participation in sporting activities at the senior high school level in Bia West District. A quantitative descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 893 and census technique was used to select all 893 participants for the study. A questionnaire was the main instrument for data collection. Frequency counts, percentages and linear multiple regression were used in analyzing the results. The finding of the study revealed that female students’ participation in sporting activities was low with 325(79.7%) respondents falling below 5 days of participation in any form of sporting or physical activity. The study also revealed that motivation is the most influential factor (β=0.256) that influences female students’ participation in sporting activities followed by the social role of the female (β=0.218) while physical factor (β=0.157) was the least factor that influences female students’ participation in sports. In lieu of the results, it is recommended that female students be motivated to participate in sporting activities to reap numerous benefits from participating in sporting activities