Economic factors predicting recreational sports participation among academic staff of tertiary institution in Kwara and Kogi States, Nigeria

Abstract

Participation in recreational sports plays an important role in physical, mental, emotion and social status of an individual. The study investigated the economic variables predicting recreational sports among academic staff of tertiary institution in Kwara and Kogi States, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. A simple random sampling technique employing the fish bowl method was used to select 12 government-owned tertiary institutions used for the study. One thousand six hundred and twenty five (1,625) were selected through stratified sampling technique. A modified standardised Recreation Sports Questionnaire on 4 point Likert type scale with reliability value of r=0.83 was used. A letter of introduction was collected from the department of Human Kinetics Education, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. The hypotheses was tested at 0.05 alpha level while data were analysed using multiple regression analysis. Results of findings showed that all the independent variables of provision of equipments, availability of facilities and economic status were significant and predicted academic staff participation in recreational activities. Recommendations made include, quality and standard recreational equipment and facilities should be made available to the participants at subsidize cost and recreation should be accessible to staff at no cost.