Leisure Activity Participation, Exercise Level and Perceived Freedom in University Students (Akdeniz University Example)

Abstract

One of the main topics handled in leisure literature is “The benefits obtained by leisure activity participation”. Besides physical health benefits, positive emotion outcomes are inquired very often in studies. Perceived freedom in leisure is one of the positive outcomes mentioned by researchers in leisure sciences. The aim of this study is to examine recreative activity participation, leisure time exercise participation and perceived freedom of university students that attended to elective physical education courses. The population of the study consists of students attending to elective physical education courses, meanwhile the sample of the study consisted of 500 voluntary students. As data collection tool “Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire” and “Perceived Freedom in Leisure” scales were used. In data analysis, non parametric correlation and hypothesis tests were used as the data were not normally distributed. According to the results leisure time exercise levels and perceived freedom scores showed a positive significant correlation (r=0.234, p<0.05). This shows that the level of exercise in leisure time increases the perception of freedom obtained from leisure activities. Men participants showed higher level of perceived freedom when compared with women (p<0.05). Men participants were also found to be more actively participating to exercise than women (χ2=22,064, p<0.05). The participants that perceived their economic status better than the other group showed higher percentage of active participation (χ2=8,472, p<0.05). For future research, the positive emotion effects of leisure activity participation could be studied in different study groups such as disabled participants, elderly people, recovering patients, immigrants and other different groups.