Effects of recreation practices on leisure constraints, facilitators and satisfaction in university campuses

This study aims to examine the effects of campus recreation practices on university students' leisure constraints, leisure facilitators and leisure satisfactions, and to determine whether these elements differ according to gender. Pretest-posttest control group experimental design, which is one of the quantitative research designs, was used in the study. To test the applicability of the activities related to campus recreation, a pilot study with 18 students and 45 activities were carried out during the 2018-2019 fall semester. The experimental study was carried out by creating a study group with 160 students, 80 of whom were the control group and 80 were the experimental group. The average age of the students participating in the research was found as Xage=20.44±1.700. While the experimental group participated in campus recreation practices regularly during the spring semester, the students in the control group were kept under control by not participating in any activities during this period. To obtain the data of the study group before and after the applications, three separate measurement tools were combined and an integrated scale form was created. In the introduction part of this form, information about the demographic characteristics of the study group was obtained by including the personal information field organized by the researcher. As a measurement tool, in order to identify the constraints and facilitators that the participants face in recreation in their leisure time; "Leisure Constraints Questionnaire" (LCQ) and "Leisure Facilitators Scale" (LFS) adapted to Turkish by Gürbüz, Öncü and Emir (2012, 2015) were utilized, and to determine the satisfaction levels of the participants "Leisure Satisfaction Scale" (LSS) adapted to Turkish by Gökçe and Orhan (2011) was utilized. In the statistical representation of the data, besides confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), normality analysis and descriptive statistical analysis, "Independent Sample T-test and Paired Sample T-test", "Pearson Correlation Test" and "Simple Linear Regression Test" were utilized. In line with the results obtained, it was determined that the students with regular participation in campus recreation practices had lower leisure constraints posttest scores (intrapersonal (t158= -21,634), interpersonal (t158= -20,456) and structural (t158= -23,976), p <0.001) than the students who did not participate, and also in participated students, the posttest scores for leisure facilitators (intrapersonal (t158= 6,355), interpersonal (t158= 4,377) and structural (t158= 3,728), p<0.001), and leisure satisfaction levels (t158= 9,809), p<0.001) were higher than the non-participated students. It was concluded that between the experimental and control groups, the gender variable was not a factor affecting the post-test scores for the leisure constraints, facilitators and satisfaction levels, so this was not statistically significant. There was a statistically significant and positive albeit low-level relationship between the mean scores of the intrapersonal facilitators (which is one of the sub-dimensions of the leisure facilitators scale) and the leisure satisfaction scale, (rp(80)= ,222, p<0.001). As a result of the linear regression analysis to interpret the effect level of this relationship, intrapersonal facilitators were able to explain 4.9% of the leisure satisfaction variance (R²= ,049; F(1,78)= 4.030, p = 0.048) and they were positively predicted (β=0.222, t=2.008, p = 0.048). It has been understood that campus recreation practices are effective on leisure constraints, facilitators and satisfaction. It was concluded that both the continuity in participation and the increase in the level of satisfaction achieved were caused by regular campus recreation practices by reducing the constraints and increasing the facilitating factors in participation in activities within the campus.