Designing a model of recreational sport activities for students

Attracting the students’ participation in university recreational sports, require a systematic model and plan. The aim of this study was to design a model of recreational sport activities for students of Islamic Azad University. This research has an applied orientation and is a mixed research in terms of data type, which had an exploratory aim in the qualitative part and a survey strategy in the quantitative part. The statistical population of the qualitative section consisted of managers and faculty members related to the research subject, 22 of whom were selected by purposive quota sampling method. The statistical population of the quantitative section consisted of 381 individuals who were the educational managers in different branches of Azad University. According to the condition of sufficient sample size for factor analysis, 200 of them were selected by stratified random sampling. The method of data collection in the quantitative section, were library-based research and semi-structured interviews up to the point of saturation in data collection, and at the quantitative stage a researcher-made questionnaire whose face validity was confirmed by experts. Delphi method was implemented for qualitative analysis of the research variables, and for data analysis, statistical methods of factorial analysis and confirmatory factorial analysis and the goodness of fit indices (Freedman) were used in SPSS and LISREL software. The results depicted that the research model has three behavioral, organizational and environmental levels with 12 components. The model also has a favorable fit. There was no significant difference between the mean ratings of model levels (P> 0.05, x2 = 5.891). The most important component of behavioral level was structural factors; organizational level, organization and environmental level, economic. This model indicates that student participation in the recreational sports at University is influenced by a wide range of areas that should be considered in the development of strategies and policies, relevant managers.