AN ANALYSIS OF LEISURE CONSTRAINTS BASED ON DIFFERENT RECREATIONAL SPORT PARTICIPATION LEVELS - RESULTS FROM A STUDY IN GREECE

What constraints are experienced by a sample of the Greek population w hen participating in recreational sport activities? An attempt was mad e to answer this question by using data collected by a household surve y conducted in an urban area in Greece. The study aimed specifically t o investigate (a) constraints on recreational sport participation, as experienced by a sample of the Greek population; (b) the relationship between constraint dimensions (derived by a principal component analys is) and sport participation or nonparticipation; and (c) the relations hip between constraint dimensions and frequency of sport participation . The results indicated that (a) the most important perceived constrai nts were time and facilities- or services-related problems; (b) nonpar ticipants were significantly more constrained than participants, parti cularly in the intrapersonal dimension; and (c) perception of constrai nts decreased with the level of participation. The study provides supp ort of the hierarchical model of leisure constraints (Crawford, Jackso n & Godbey, 1991); intrapersonal constraints were shown to be signific antly related to sport participation or nonparticipation. Moreover, th e results suggest that there are similarities between the perceptions of constraints of the Greek sample and those of participants in previo us North American research, despite the different cultures and recreat ional provision. The implications of these results are discussed in te rms of the hierarchical model of leisure constraints, and the importan ce and removal of intrapersonal constraints, service provision, and cr osscultural comparisons.