”Motorsport är det bästa jag vet - det är mitt liv” : En kvalitativ intervjustudie om svenska kvinnliga förare inom motorsporten

Sammanfattning

Whitin motorsport, women and men compete on equal terms with the same physical prerequisites. Despite this, the research in this field is deficient regarding female drivers’ experience of being active in a male-dominated sport (Kochanek et al., 2021; Matthews & Pike, 2016). The aim of the study was to examine how female drivers withinmotorsport in Sweden experience their well-being in relation to autonomy, competence, and relatedness from a self-determining perspective. The study was based on the Self-determination theory on how the satisfaction of the three psychological needs autonomy, competence, and relatedness contribute to perceived well-being and increased intrinsic motivation. The definition of well-being was adopted based on Giles et al. (2020) where the concept was divided into physical-, mental-, and social well-being. Nine female drivers within motorsport in Sweden participated in the study, the participants were between 19-29 years of age (M=23.44; SD=3.56). Every participant competed at either national or international championship level in at least one discipline within motorsport. The result showed that the participants’ experience of well-being within motorsport could be linked to the satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. It emerged that the main motivating factor for the participants came from the joyfulness they experienced from practicing motorsport, which indicated that they were driven by intrinsic motivation. The conclusion drawn was that the satisfaction of all needs was important for the participants’ perceived well-being, where relatedness seemed to be the most vital factor.