Identifying and ranking factors influencing the sustainable development of environmental culture in sports

The very important role of sports and its symbols can be used to promote environmental awareness, improve daily functions and activities of millions of people. Sports and the environment are closely related to each other and sports are mentioned as a tool to achieve the principles of sustainable development. The aim of the research was to provide a model of factors influencing the development of environmental culture in sports in Kermanshah province.

The statistical community included 10 sports management professors and experts familiar with the subject in the qualitative section and all the athletes of Kermanshah province in the quantitative section. In the qualitative part, the purposeful sampling method was used, and the sample of the quantitative part was selected using Morgan's table of 384 people. From the questionnaire created by the researcher by studying the theoretical foundations, semi-guided interviews with sports management professors and experts in an exploratory process and using the exploratory factor analysis method, 28 items in the form of six educational, research, structural, managerial, cultural, and research factors. And provincial solutions were classified.

The results of the research showed that the current questionnaire is a suitable tool for measuring the development of environmental culture in sports in Kermanshah province. Also, the final model of the research showed that the structural factors had the first priority from the respondents' point of view and the provincial solutions had the last priority.

It is concluded that the research model and the priority of its factors for policy making in the field of environmental culture development in sports should be taken into consideration.