Influence of Recreational Facilities among Adolescents towards Leisure Time Physical Activity (LTPA)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the influence of recreational facilities towards leisure physical activities among youth. As many as 913 respondents aged between 13 to 17 years old from four districts (Seremban, Muar, Kota Star and Kuantan) in Peninsular Malaysia, were chosen through a layered cluster random sampling technique.  The results show that the safety of the environment is in moderate level (busy road: M=3.51, SP=1.31; stray dog: M=3.46, SP=1.38; crime: M=3.23, SP=1.33) and it has no connection with the involvement of youths in LTPA (r=-0.01, p>0.05). It is also discovered that sports facilities limit them from undergoing physical activities during leisure hours. However, facilities are easy to be used (75%) by youths and this leads to a significant relationship with LTPA (r=0.10, p<0.05). The implication of this research shows that physical environment is pivotal in order to increase the level of youth involvement in overall free time physical activities.  Thus, it is suggested that these physical activities can only take more of the teenagers’ time if they are carried out in environments which are creative, comfortable, safe and user-friendly.  Keywords: physical activity, physical environment, and adolescents. eISSN 2514-751X © 2017 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.