| 英文摘要 |
Introduction: Sport fans were predominantly male in the past but the number of female sport fans had been steadily increasing. This study was an exploration of die-hard female sport fans. The purpose of this study was to explore the motives, emotions and experiences related to being a fan of a group of die-hard female sport fans. Methods: To this end, in-depth interview was conducted on four female fans with high attendance in Chinese Professional Baseball League or Super Basketball League in Taiwan. Results: By organization and analysis, the result revealed that at the beginning of the forming a sport fan, fathers usually played important roles on guiding them into sports at their early age. They were attracted by players’ appearance or team’s performance easily at first and established to a deep attachment with a team and an intense interest in players through watching games and having interactions before and after games. Besides, watching games was a way of their lives. They understood games well, felt a sense of belonging to a team and had a social life with other loyal fans who shared the same emotional affiliation to the same team. Their identity is stable and effective. Therefore, they emphasized on the fighting process rather than the results and remained loyal and fiercely attached to their teams especially when they lost. Female sport fans also exhibit higher levels of physiological arousal at games and showed more supportive behaviors, such as making favorite player’s poster and gifts. Conclusion: Based on research findings, we noticed that there has been little attention given to studying super female sport fans. As the number of female sport fan grows increasingly and with their highly emotional devotion to the games, it was suggested that female sport fans has become a new important segment on sports. It will help to thoroughly understand the different characteristics and hopefully effective strategy will be drawn up accordingly. |
