Investigation of Meaning of Leisure Activities and the Satisfaction with Life of Students in the Faculty of Sport Sciences: An Example of Akdeniz University

Aim: It is known that recreational activities have positive effects on people's emotions, thoughts, morale and many other issues. The aim of this study was to measure students' participation in recreational activities, life satisfaction and the meaning of leisure activities to the students in the Faculty of Sport Sciences at Akdeniz University. Method: A total of 252 students (60.3% male, 39.7% female) participated in the study. As data collection instruments, Turkish version (Köker, 1991) of Life Satisfaction Scale (LSS), which was developed by Diener et al. (1985), and Turkish version (Gürbüz et al., 2007) of Leisure Meanings Inventory (LMI) (Esteve et al., 1999) were used. SPSS Package program was used in the study. ANOVA was used in the data analysis. Findings: According to the findings of Leisure Meanings Inventory by classes, there was a statistically significant difference (p <0.005) among the groups. This difference appears to be between sophomores and juniors when examined on a class-by-class basis. According to the findings of Leisure Meanings Inventory with regard to departments, it was noted that there was very little difference between them, although there was a difference in the averages. This difference was not statistically significant though. There was no statistically significant difference between groups regarding class and department variables according to the findings of Life Satisfaction Scale. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that there was a significant difference between sophomores and juniors while there was no significant difference between freshmen and seniors according to the LMI averages. There was no significant difference between the mean scores of LSS among the classes.