The Study of Motivations of Women’s Participation in Recreational Water Sports (Case Study: Women of Khorasan Razavi province)

For more women participation in recreational water sport, recognition motivations that lead them towards such exercises are required. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the motivations to women participation in recreational water sports. The research method was descriptive and its design was correlation. The exploratory factor analysis with a varimax rotation was used to assess the dimensions and the motivational factors of participation and also to examine the validity of the structural research tool. The statistical populations consist of the study included all women of Khorasan Razavi Province that participated in recreational water sports. The minimum and the maximum of sample size in the factor analysis is 2 and 10 times the number of variables, respectively. Therefore, 350 women were selected as samples by random cluster method. Researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect the data. The face and content validity of the instrument were confirmed by experts and professors of sports management. Reliability of the questionnaire that assessed by Cronbachʹs alpha coefficient in a pilot study was 0.89. The results showed that the factor loading of 37 items of 43 items in factors of motivations to women participation was equal or greater than 0.45 that were classified in 8 categories. The variance of eight factors was 58.68%. These factors were called "fun and relax, success and recognition, social aspects, fitness, health and hygiene, supremacy, prevention and treatment of diseases and skills". Results showed that "I enjoy it" is the most important item (M=4.56) and " Physician, physical activity and exercise in the water are recommended” is the least important variable (M=3.58). In this regard, it is suggested that managers can used the current results to improve decision making in recreational sports.