How Does Seriousness in Leisure Effect on Place Attachment of Unprofessional Athletes?

The present study aimed to determine the effects of serious leisure on place attachment in amateur athletes. The present research was an applied-correlational study with structural equation modeling. The statistical population consisted of all amateur athletes in Enghelab Sports Complex. The sample size was determined using PASS based on the research objectives and hypotheses. The respondents were selected based on convenience sampling method and questionnaires were distributed among them. Finally, total of 334 questionnaires were used for data analysis. The required data were collected using Serious leisure questionnaire (Gold et al., 2008), and, place attachment questionnaire (Kyle et al., 2005). A pilot study was also conducted in order to evaluate the construct validity and Cronbach’s alpha of questionnaires was equal to 0.951, respectively. The data were statistically analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS-23 and Smart PLS-3. The results showed that serious leisure can predict 21% of variances of place attachment, respectively. Based on the results of structural equation modeling, the impact of serious leisure on place attachment of amateur athletes was adequately fitted (SRMR=059/0 ). The findings of this study showed, that seriousness in leisure leads to the place attachment of amateur athletes, and can increase participation in physical activity. And can increase participation in physical activity. In other words, one of the ways to influence people's leisure Behavior choices is to use systematic pursuit of leisure and to create a place attachment in sports places.