Dominant Types of Multiple Intelligences in Oman: Sport Practitioners vs Non-Practitioners

This study aimed to investigate the dominant types of multiple intelligences among regular sports practitioners as well as to make a comparison in the types of intelligence between sports practitioners and non-practicers. The Exercise Behavior Scale and Multiple Intelligences Scale were electronically administered concurrently to 406 Omani sports practitioners and non-practitioners (298 males and 108 females; age mean 25.39 ± 6.67). Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used to analyze the data. The present-defined sports practitioners exhibited higher levels of bodily-kinesthetic, social, emotional, and naturalist intelligence while having low levels of musical and linguistic intelligence. In general, the differences between the levels of the eight types of intelligence in both groups were in favor of sports practitioners but did not reach the significance levels except for only two types of intelligence, namely physical-kinesthetic intelligence and emotional intelligence. The present study laid the groundwork for the utilization of the multiple intelligences paradigm to explore the topology of the multiple intelligences among regular sports practitioners vs. non-practitioners. This, in turn, could lay the foundation for identifying temperaments to foster sport and well-being.
Keywords: multiple intelligences, sports activities, Oman