Abstract:
Recreational Sports Participation (RSP), involvement in sports during leisure, is for
enjoyment and health promotion. Reports have shown that the level of RSP among staff
of Federal Colleges of Education (FCE) in Nigeria is relatively low. Previous studies on
RSP focused more on health connection, and social benefits of recreational sports, with
little research attention done to the influence of organisational and socio-economic
factors. This study, therefore, was carried out to examine Organisational Factors – OF
(funding, facilities maintenance, and injury insurance); Sociological Factors – SF
(religion, peer group influence and occupational demand) and Economic Factors - EF
(income and opportunity cost of time) as predictors of RSP among the staff of FCE in
southwestern Nigeria.
The Participation and Incentive theories served as the framework, while the concurrent
mixed methods (correlation and qualitative approaches) were adopted. The multi-stage
sampling procedure was adopted. The four Federal Colleges of Education in
Sօuthwestern Nigeria (Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Ondo, FCE, Abeokuta,
FCE (T) Akoka and FCE (Sp) Oyo) were enumerated. Proportionate to size sampling
technique was used to select 1,931 respondents (A.C.E, Ondo=552, FCE, Abeokuta =
428, FCE (T), Akoka= 412, FCE (Sp), Oyo=539). The instruments used were RS
Participation (r = 0.75), Level of Recreatiօn Sports Participation (r =0.82), Adequacy of
Sports Facilities (r=0.81) and Equipment (r = 0.72), Funding (r=0.72), Facility
Maintenance (r=0.71), Injury Insurance (r=0.70), Religion (r=0.74), Peer Group
Influence (r=0.78), Occupational Demand (r=0.78), Income (r=0.78) and Opportunity
Cost of Time (r=0.80) scales. Key Informant interviews were held with four chairmen
and four directors of sports. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics,
Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance,
while the qualitative data were content-analysed.
The respondents’ age was 39.0 ± 2.4 years, and 67.7% were male. Funding (r = 0.38),
facilities maintenance (r = 0.37), injury insurance (r =0.25), religion (r =0.18), peer group
influences (r =0.43), occupational demand (r = 0.42), income (r = 0.28), and opportunity
cost of time (r = 0.52), correlated positively with RSP. There was a significant joint
contribution of OF, SF, and EF (F(3,184) = 138.03, Adj R2 = 0.183) to RSP, accounting for
18.3% of its variance. Funding (β = 0.28), facilities maintenance culture (β =0.22), injury
insurance policy (β =0.06), religion (β =0.04), peer group influence (β =0.12),
occupational demand (β = 0.41), income (β = 0.13), and opportunity cost of time (β =
0.50) significantly contributed to RSP. There was a significant difference in the level of
recreational sports participation based on cadre (F(2;1838) =4.00) in favour of senior nonteaching staff ( x =20.45), Junior non-teaching staff ( x =20.21) and academic staff ( x
=20.10). The low level of recreational sports participation was attributed to inadequate
sport facilities and equipment, high occupational demand and opportunity cost of time.
Organisational and socio-economic factors influenced recreational sports participatiօn
amօng the staff օf Federal Colleges of Education in Sօuthwestern Nigeria. It could be
inferred that strengthening these factors would improve recreational sports participation
of staff.
