Exploring the Relationship between Participation Motives and Attachment in Folklore Dance Programs

This paper aimed to explore the motives for participating in folklore dance programs, and investigate the relationship between these motives and attachment to the programs. One hundred and thirty nine recreational dancers of seven folklore dance associations of North Greece participated in the study. An adjusted version of the REP scale (Manfredo, Driver, & Tarrant., 2007) was used to measure motives, while Funk and James’ (2006) scale was used to measure attachment. This scale includes twelve items, which are categorized in four dimensions: Cognitive, importance, affective and self-expression. The results of the study indicated that the motive dimensions with the highest mean scores were the following: a) reduce stress, b) escape; c) improve physical fitness. The regression analysis indicated that the motive dimensions predicted a significant amount of variance in participants’ intentions to continue participating in the programs. The social recognition, socialisation and improve knowledge about folklore dance dimensions made the most significant contributions. Future research, considering the results of the present study, should focus on the demographic differences of recreational dancers, in terms of their motives and attachment levels.