Volume 23, Issue 89 (8-2023)                   refahj 2023, 23(89): 207-246 | Back to browse issues page


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Asefi A, Mohebiniya H. (2023). The Relationship between Leisure Time Physical Activity and High-risk Behaviors with Mediating Personality among the Students of University of Isfahan. refahj. 23(89), 207-246. doi:10.32598/refahj.23.89.4185.1
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4107-en.html
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Introduction: Recently, the prevalence of high-risk behaviors among young people has become one of the most important and widespread concerns of human societies. Students, like other groups of youth, are exposed to high-risk behaviors, so some subcultures related to student groups sometimes encourage high-risk behaviors such as smoking and drug consumption, and from among the most common high-risk behaviors among students are heavy drinking, substance abuse, unsafe sex, reckless driving, and suicide. Hence, it is very important to investigate the factors and conditions affecting the emergence of high-risk behaviors among different strata of society, especially students. Having good mental, mental and physical health on the part of students can lead to scientific growth, and development of the country. It seems that the way of spending leisure time actively and passively has an effect on the occurrence of high-risk behaviors, and it is obvious that the deprivation of programs under the title of healthy and useful leisure time can lead to moral anomalies, deviations, and types of high-risk behaviors. Meanwhile, underlying personality factors are also effective in the occurrence of high-risk behaviors and can have the role of moderating or strengthening the occurrence of high-risk behaviors when a person participates in sports activities. Therefore, the main issue of this research is investigating the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors with mediating personality among students of University of Isfahan.
Method: The current research method was a correlational description that was implemented in the field. The statistical population of the research was made up of all the students of University of Isfahan in the academic year of 2019-2019 with a number of 16563, of which 10104 were girls and 6459 were boys. Using the Karjesi and Morgan’s Table, the sample size was determined to be 375, according to the size of the population. To collect data, a checklist of leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors and personality questionnaires were used. The validity and reliability of research tools were checked. The collection of research data was done in two parts of library and field studies. In the field part, due to the spread of Covid-19 and the lack of in-person access to students, research questionnaires were designed electronically and distributed among the students of all faculties of University of Isfahan in coordination with the educational and research officials of each faculty. 301 questionnaires were completed (80% return rate) and 280 questionnaires (74/67) were found suitable for analysis. To analyze the research data, descriptive statistics methods (tables, graphs, averages, etc.) and also, inferential statistics methods (Kolmogorov Smirnov test to check the normality of data, Pearson test to check the relationship between variables, and discriminant correlation to check the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors with the mediating role of personality) were used. All research analyses were done by SPSS version 22 software.
Findings: The descriptive results of the research showed that 37.9% of the sample were male and 62.1% were female. The highest age range (36.4 percent) was 18 to 22 years old, and most of the students (53.2 percent) were undergraduate students. In addition, the results showed that 80.7% of the research sample do physical activity in their leisure time and 19.3% do not do physical activity, and most people (30.36%) had between 1 and 30 minutes of physical activities in their leisure time. The results of the research showed that there is a significant relationship between leisure-time physical activity and personality with high-risk behaviors. In addition, there was a significant relationship between leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors, such as smoking cigarettes and shisha, wrong food behavior, and internet addiction; however, the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and other high-risk behaviors was not significant. Furthermore, there is a significant relationship between compatibility, neuroticism, openness to experience and conscientiousness and high-risk behaviors. On the other hand, no relationship was found between extroversion and high-risk behaviors. Finally, the results of the discriminant correlation test showed that separate relationships between leisure time physical activity and high-risk behaviors and personality and high-risk behaviors are significant. However, when the personality variable is included in the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors, the relationship between the two variables is not significant. These results show that the relationship between the two variables is not real and the existence of such a relationship is due to the existence of a relationship between each of these two variables with the personality variable.
Discussion: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors with the mediating role of personality among the students of University of Isfahan. The research results showed that there is a negative and inverse relationship between leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors in students; that is, the more leisure time physical activity among students, the less high-risk behaviors will be. In addition, the results of the research showed a negative and inverse relationship between leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors such as smoking cigarettes and shisha, wrong food behavior, and internet addiction among the students of University of Isfahan. Despite the significant relationship between leisure-time physical activity and some high-risk behaviors, the research results showed that there is no significant relationship between leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors, such as risky driving, violence, drug use, alcohol use, and sexual behavior. In addition, the results of the research showed that there is a significant negative and inverse relationship between personality and high-risk behaviors among the students. Personality, as a determining factor can influence all high-risk human behaviors in the field of personal and social life and (sometimes due to incompatible traits and characteristics) face threatening problems for the individual and those around him. According to the results of the research and other research studies, some personality traits play a role in the occurrence of high-risk behaviors, and others lead to the reduction of such behaviors. Although the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and high-risk behaviors is significant, however, when the personality variable is included in the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and risky behaviors, the relationship between the two variables does not become significant. Therefore, according to results of the research, it can be said that personality plays an important role in people's involvement in various activities and behaviors, and it plays a vital and important role, although leisure time physical activity has a relationship with high-risk behaviors, the existence of this relationship depends on the personality of individuals and their personality characteristics. Therefore, in dealing with high-risk behaviors, the personality of the people should be carefully considered and its effects on the behavior and actions of the people should be considered.
Type of Study: orginal |
Received: 2022/08/14 | Accepted: 2023/05/10 | Published: 2023/08/15

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