An analysis of adolescent participation and satisfaction of recreational sport activities in Hsinchu City, Taiwan

The study aims to investigate the recreation participation behavior of adolescents in Hsinchu City and their satisfaction for recreation participation. In this study, three questionnaires were used: (1) Survey of Demographic Background, (2) Recreational activities participation scale and (3) Leisure satisfaction scale.;A total of 720 questionnaires were sent out to 12 senior and vocational high schools during study. A total of 711 were returned after investigation with a return rate of 98.7%; meanwhile, 4 invalid questionnaires were rejected, so 707 were considered valid. The subjects of study were adolescents of 12 senior and vocational high schools in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Subjects were selected using a Stratified Random Sampling. The researcher selected one teacher from each of the 12 schools to distribute the survey. They randomly draw 20 names from the 1st year students, 20 from the 2nd year students and 20 from the 3rd year students during physical education classes from 4th to 25th June 2008. The study utilized the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Program (SPSS) Version 16.0 for Windows for statistical analysis. The statistical analysis methods applied to this study included the following: Descriptive Statistics, MANOVA, and Chi-square test.;The following conclusions were drawn from the sixteen research questions of three aspects in this study: (1) Regarding the difference of recreation participation satisfaction among adolescents with diversified demographic backgrounds as the variable: the results of this study indicates that males are often encouraged to participate in competitive activities, and females are encouraged to participate in the static activities. The expectation and belief of the traditional role easily affects male and female participation satisfaction. (2) Regarding the difference of adolescents' satisfaction with recreation participation in terms of diversified recreation participation behavior of adolescents: the results of this study shows that the more times and longer (more than 30 minutes) the adolescents participate in recreation, the higher participation satisfaction is. Wang Yu-Qi, Zhang Shao-hee, and Zhang Liang-han (2007) mentioned that the positive effect of recreational activity helps adolescents develop a healthy personality. Good recreational activity helps adolescents to have healthier physical and mental status, to cope with the challenge that adolescents face. If adolescents develop correct recreational activity based on personal hobby or interacts with classmates or friends in order to enhance friendships, this would be a positive recreation participation behavior, and relatively, participation satisfaction would be higher. (3) Regarding the relations between variables of different demographic backgrounds and recreation participation behavior of adolescents: the result of this study indicated that the students of this age are in the learning stage, so the recreation participation venues is mostly located in schools, and companions are mostly their peers of the same age. Further, they don't spend little money on recreation participation, and the participation behavior easily changes. As a result, different demographic backgrounds relate to recreation participation behavior.;Finally, based on these conclusions, suggestions by which to enhance the knowledge and techniques to further encourage adolescents' satisfaction were discussed. The study's results do not apply to adolescents in other cities. Only by expanding the scope of the subject group, future researchers can further determine adolescent recreation participation and impeding factors.