A EXAMINING THE FACTORS LIMITING THE PARTICIPATION IN THE LEISURE TIME PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES

Abstract

The factors, which discourage the enthusiasm and wish of the individuals to participate in leisure time activities, cause waste of time, remove the advantages of leisure time activities, and decrease the level of satisfaction expected from these activities, are called as limiters.

The objective of this study is to determine the factors that limit the participation of the university personnel in the leisure time physical activities and to examine whether these data vary across variables such as the level of profession, gender, and occupational group (Academician-Administrative Personnel). The universe of the research study is comprised of the Erzurum Ataturk University staff. 100 voluntary personnel, who were selected via random sampling method, participated in the study.

Leisure Time Physical Activity Limiters (LTPA-L) scale, which was developed by Öcal (2012), was used as the data collection tool. Comprised of 8 sub-dimensions (physical perception, facility, income, family, skill perception, time, will, social environment) and 38 articles, LTPA-L is a six point likert scale, and it measures the factors that limit the participation of the participants in the leisure time physical activities. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics and univariate variance analysis (ANOVA) and Independent Samples T-Test methods were used.

As the conclusion of this study, concerning the factors limiting the participation of the male and female personnel in the physical activities, from a gender point of view, it was determined that the females participated in physical activities less compared to the males in the sub-dimensions of the scale; from the occupational group perspective, it was determined that administrative staff allocate less time for physical activities compared to academic staff.

Key Words: Leisure Time, University Personnel, Physical Activity, Limiting Factor.