THE EFFECT OF RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES ON TRAIT AND STATE ANXIETY LEVELS

Recreation is a concept referring to the activities people do in their spare time and how university students recreate their spare time completely takes place within the scope of facilities offered by the university. Anxiety is a multifaceted inner feature that consists physiological, physiological and behavioral reactions or event. It can also be accepted as a broad concept for many complex, emotional and encouraging (motivating) situations that occurs as a result of any threat. Research has been designed in a single group pre-test and post-test model. Research sample is same with study area which covers totally 180 of our university students (120 male and 60 female). Anxiety Inventory has been used as a measurement tool which was developed by Spielberger et al. (1970) and adapted by Öner and Le Compte (1995). The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of recreational activities (trekking, camping, rock climbing) participated by the students on their anxiety level. As a result of the analysis; it was determined that the activities such as trekking, camping and rock climbing do not have a significant effect on trait anxiety scores of the participants, however; camping and rock climbing cause a significant increase on state anxiety scores. In terms of the gender variable, it has been found out that camping and rock climbing lead a statistically significant increase on state anxiety scores of female participants. Consequently, it is possible to say that activities taking place in an unfamiliar environment with a high risk potential increase the state anxiety of participants and these physical activities have a higher level of influence on females in terms of state anxiety level.