Abstract

Leisure participation, life satisfaction, and psychological needs stand out as concepts that are closely related to each other especially in exercise participation. The purpose of this study is to determine and analyze leisure involvement, basic psychological need satisfaction, and life satisfaction level concerning some variables among university students who are regular exercise participants. Study participants comprised a total of 428 university students who were regular exercise participants. The participants, who were chosen using a convenience sampling method, completed the “Modified Involvement Scale” (MIS), “Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale” (BPNES) and Life Satisfaction Scale” (LSS). T-test, MANOVA, and correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that the main effect of gender was significant on “MIS” “BPNES” and “LSS” in favor of male participants. There were significant effects of type of exercise in favor of individual exercise participants. Further, there were statistically significant correlations between all scales. Participation in leisure activities positively affects the person’s perspectives on all areas of life and determines the individual's feelings like autonomy, competency, and feeling more related to their lives. The findings of this study also give useful insights into exercise psychology research and provide suggestions for future research.

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