Identifing the Behavioral Factors Involved in Increasing Students’ Participation in Recreational Sport Activities at Islamic Azad University

Finding the appropriate solutions for attracting students in active participating in recreational sports and to ensure their health needs a good command in knowing the effective factors in this regard. The purpose of this study was to investigate the behavioral factors involved in increasing students’ participation in recreational sport activities at the university. This research has an applied orientation and is a mixed research in which is exploratory from qualitative point of view and is a survey research from quantitative view point.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 was the educational managers of the Azad University units including 381 persons. According to the condition of sufficient sample size for factor analysis, 200 were selected by stratified random sampling. Data collection method is the quantitative section, Libraries and semi – structured interviewed based on saturation in data collection, and at the quantitative stage a researcher-made questionnaire whose face validity was performed to confirm the questionnaire by experts. Delphi method was used for qualitative analysis of research variables and factorial analysis and confirmatory factorial analysis then the goodness of fit indices and Freedman was used in SPSS and LISREL soft wares. The results revealed that behavioral factors influencing students' participation in university leisure activities can be classified into three structural, interactive (interpersonal) and individual components. These results can help the officials formulate sports university strategies and policies.