Examining the relationship between recreational exercise motivation and perceived health outcomes from individuals who exercise regularly

Today it is observed that individuals intensely participate in recreational exercises in their leisure time. It is reported in the literature that they act on several motivations while participating in such exercises. It is known that various factors are influential for exercise motivation, mainly; health, competition, appearance, social/enjoyment and skills development. Perceived health outcomes contain the health benefits perceived by the individuals as resulting from their exercises. In this study, it is aimed to determine which of the recreational exercise motivation factors of individuals is the greatest; to analyse the association between each motivation factor and the perceived health outcomes of recreation and to ascertain the predictive level that most-associated factor can show for the exercise motivation. Quantitative research method is used in the research and it is designed in the relational screening model. The samples of the research add up to a total of 294 participants (Meanage=28,57±8,648) including 170 men (Meanage=26,86±7,81) and 124 women (Meanage=30,90±9,201) that are going to different fitness centres in Antalya. "Recreational Exercise Motivation Measure (REMM)" adapted into Turkish by Gurbuz et al. and with "Perceived Health Outcomes of Recreation Scale (PHORS)" adapted into Turkish by Yerlisu Lapa et al. have been used as a data-gathering tool. Chronbach's Alpha coefficient for the whole REMM is .94 and it ranges between .90, .87, .81, .89 and .92, respectively, for its sub-factors; while the coefficient for the whole PHORS is .94. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and simple linear regression analysis have been used for data analysis. It is found out that point averages of the exercise motivation factors of the participating individuals are as follow; health 4.34, skills development 4.19, appearance 4.19, social/enjoyment 3.71 and competition 3.38, respectively. It is observed that health motivation .663 (p<.001) among other exercise motivation factors has the highest correlation with perceived health outcomes of recreation and it predicts the perceived health outcomes, significantly (R=.663, R2=.438, F=229,336, p<.001). In light of the findings above, it is safe to say that individuals are motivated by health the most and perceived health outcomes are predicted by the health motivation at the highest level.