Leisure time participation, psychological well- being and examining leisure time constraints negotiation strategies of university students

The aim of this study is to determine whether psychological well-being statuses of university students according to their genders, their leisure negotiation strategies and their leisure exercise participation and also, their psychological well-being with respect to participation level to leisure exercises and their leisure negotiation strategies have been differentiated or not and detect the relationship between psychological well-being, leisure negotiation strategies and leisure time exercise participation of students. Population of the study consisted of a 21.828 students as 10.233 females and 11.595 males having education in faculties, schools and vocational schools while sample consisted of 400 females (Mage=19.48±1.62), 400 males (Mage=19.98±2.25) making 800 (Mage=19.73±1.98) students at total selected with random sampling method. In the study, Turkish adaptation study of "Leisure Exercise Questionnaire" developed by Godin and Shephard (92) in 1985 with the purpose if measuring activity within leisure time of individuals was made by Yerlisu Lapa ve Yağar (93). Psychological Well-being Scales" developed by Ryff (23) and adapted to Turkish culture by Akın (94) was used with the purpose of measuring psychological well-being of participants, and "Leisure Negotiation Strategies Scale" was used developed by Hubbard and Mannell (70), modified to recreational campus sports by Elkins (81), validated by Beggs et al. (95) and adapted to Turkish for Turkish university students by Yerlisu Lapa (96) with the purpose of determining the level of strategies developed to handle obstacles encountered in leisure times of participants. In the study, descriptive statistics, deductive statistics, and as normal distribution conditions cannot be realized, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis Variance Analysis from non-parametrical tests were applied apart from descriptive statistics. Correlation coefficients were calculated with Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient on normal distribution, and with Spearman's rank correlation coefficient on abnormal distribution. However, correlation in qualitative data was calculated with Pearson Chi Square Test. Results were assessed in .05 significance level. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 package program. Consequently, psychological well-being of students having education in universities and sub-dimensions thereof show positive linear relationship with both leisure negotiation strategies and leisure time exercise participations. While some sub-dimensions of psychological well-being statutes of students with respect their genders and leisure exercise participations show significant difference, leisure negotiation strategies do not. As for leisure exercise participation levels (mild, moderate, severe), some sub-dimensions of psychological well-being and leisure negotiation strategies show difference. According to these results, while psychological well-being of females are higher in some sub-dimensions with significant difference, leisure exercise participations are lower with respect to males. Psychological well-being of individuals having light and strenuous leisure exercise participation intensity are higher in sub-dimensions with significant difference. Key Words: Psychological Well-Being, Leisure Time Exercise, Leisure Negotiation Strategies, University Students