Perception of Participation Constraints to Recreational Activities: A case of University Students

The purpose of this research is to analyze the perceptions of the university students related with the constraints that affect the participation to leisure time activities. In this study, Turkish Leisure Constraints Questionnaire (T-LCQ) was used as a data collection tool. LCQ measure university students' perceptions of constraints on leisure participation. The population of the research consists of the students of Kastamonu University and the sampling consists of 300 university students between the ages of 18-30 who are studying in the department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching at Kastamonu University in the academic year of 2012-2013. When the obtained data were analyzed, it was determined that the answers of some participants were "invalid" and 232 university students (91 female and 141 male) formed the sampling of the research. According to the sub-dimensions of T-LCQ, independent sample t-test was used to examine the mean differences related with gender and age. Although female university students have higher average scores in all sub-dimensions of T-LCQ, there is no significant difference (p> .05) between the mean scores of male and female students for all sub-dimensions according to t-test analyzes. No significant difference was observed between age groups (p> .05). General findings show that the sub-dimension of facility / service and accessibility is the biggest constraint for leisure time activities and the lack of friends is the least constraint for all participants.