Why People Participate Leisure Time Physical Activity: A Turkish Perspective

Abstract

This study was conducted for the assessment of why people participate leisure time physical activity and examine the differences in participation motives with regard to some demographic variables.  The sample consisted of 146 female (Mage = 21.60 ± 2.01) and 167 male (Mage = 22.23 ± 2.21) randomly selected voluntary university students. In this study, the Personal Demographic Information Form (PDIF) and “Measure of Recreational Exercise Motivation (REMM)” scale (Roger and Morris, 2003) that adapted in to Turkish “The Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale (PALMS)” by Aşçı et al. (2012) was administered on the participants. PALMS scale consisted of 34 items and following 8 subscales: (a) Mastery, (b) Physical condition, (c) Social relation, (d) Psychological condition, (e) Appearance, (f) Others’ expectations, (g) Enjoyment, (h) Competition. Descriptive statistics, MANOVA, and Pearson Correlation analysis were used to analyse the collected data. As a result MANOVA analysis indicated overall significant main effect of gender and frequency of exercise participation on “PALMS” scores. Furthermore, analysis indicated a significant and positive relationship between age and subscales of “Others’ Expectations” of the “PALMS”. Overall, the descriptive analysis showed that “Physical Condition” regarded as the most important factors that motive to exercise participation. The “Others’ Expectation” was the least important motive.