Abstract:

The aim of this study was to examine the motivational factors that affect the individuals to participate recreational exercise and to compare these factors with respect to some demographic variables. The participants of this descriptive study were 301 female and 305 male(Mage= 29±7,73) members of four different fitness centers in Ankara. Individuals’ level of motivation was examined by using The Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale. The PALMS originally developed by Roger and Morris (2003) and adapted into Turkish culture by Aşçı et al., (2012) to assess individuals’ level of motivation. In the study, descriptive statistics were used to overview the data while independent samples t-Test and ANOVA were used to examine the mean differences concerning “gender”, “age”, “income and education level” to deal with compared to PALMS subscales. The ANOVA results demonstrated that significant difference for “age” and “daily time spent” variables on PALMS (p<0.05), but as for gender and income level, significant difference was found for “gender” and “income level” variables on the Mastery factor of PALMS. As a conclusion, overall it can be said that there is relevance between motivation level of the participants and their demographic characteristics. Furthermore, it was found that as “age level” and “daily time spent” increase, so does the participants’ level of motivation. This study was conducted on limited participants which was the main limitations of this research. Therefore, it is counseled that increment of participants’ number from different demographic characteristics may contribute the literature more for future studies.

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