The factors that motivate college students to participate in leisure activities play a key role in better understanding participation patterns in campus recreational sports. This study utilized the Leisure Motivation Scale developed by Beard and Ragheb (1983) to determine factors that motivated college students' leisure choices. The purpose of this study was to examine motivational differences in students who participated regularly in campus recreational sports and students who did not regularly participate in campus recreational sports. The sample consisted of 631 students from two universities. The results indicated that students who did not participate regularly in campus recreational sports were seeking rewards from their leisure such as rest, escape and solitude, as well as the opportunity to use their imagination and learn. Students who regularly participated in campus recreational sports revealed that they were motivated to participate because of physical activity, challenge, and competition. In addition, differences in gender and overall motivation for leisure participation were examined.

College students are often faced with barriers or constraints that prevent them from participating in campus recreational sports. Constraints have been examined in a campus recreational sports setting, but only with respect to students who did not participate. Constraints do not necessarily prevent a student from participating. Many students are able to overcome or negotiate these constraints and still manage to participate. Very little research has been done on the concept of negotiation in leisure. The purpose of this study was to examine negotiation strategies and methods used by college students to overcome constraints to participation in campus recreational sports. The sample consisted of 653 students and was analyzed based on gender, residence, and level of education. The results from t-tests and ANOVA procedures indicated that students use different negotiation strategies based on gender. Few differences were found based on residence and no differences were found based on level of education.

Out-of-class involvement provides students with opportunities for rich social lives which, according to Cheng (2004), are closely associated with sense of campus community. Based on Astin's (1984) Theory of Involvement, and Boyer's (1990) principles of community, the purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which involvement in campus recreational sports programs is associated with students' perceived sense of campus community. Three hundred and thirty respondents completed an on-line questionnaire which consisted of demographics and questions related to their out-of-class involvement in 14 areas as identified by the institutions' Dean of Students Office, and a 25-item sense of community scale developed by Cheng (2004). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to examine the underlying factor structure of the sense of community scale. The six factors extracted from the EFA served as independent variables in a multiple regression analysis used to predict student perceived sense of campus community using a sample of 125 participants in campus recreational sports. In addition, participation levels in campus recreational sports were used to measure differences in perceived sense of campus community based on involvement using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results suggest participation in campus recreational sports significantly predicted a sense of community within the diversity and acceptance factor. In addition, students who participated in campus recreational sports perceived a greater sense of campus community based on the residential experience factor when compared with those students who did not participate.

Satisfaction experienced during leisure activity plays an important role in continued leisure participation. Leisure participation is also affected by leisure constraints. In recent years, the idea of negotiating leisure constraints has emerged as an important area of research. The concept of constraint negotiation suggests that individuals use various methods to overcome constraints and participate in leisure activities. Although research has been done examining the leisure satisfaction of college students, as well as constraint negotiation strategies used by college students, little research has examined the role of negotiation in creating satisfying leisure experiences. The purpose of this study was to examine which type of constraint negotiation strategies contributed to satisfying leisure experiences for college students. The sample of this study consisted of college students at two midwestern universities ( N = 363). Results from this study indicate that college students commonly use interpersonal relations, physical fitness, and skill acquisition negotiation strategies in order to participate in leisure activities. Additional results from multiple regression analyses suggest that the strongest predictors of leisure satisfaction are negotiation strategies that involve a social component, the practicing of a skill in order to improve, and a sense of accomplishment during participation. The findings of this study indicate that leisure satisfaction for college students may be associated with the negotiation strategies used to participate in leisure activities.

In this study, we examined differences in leisure motivation on the basis of the type of campus recreational activity in which a student was engaged. Specifically, campus recreational activities included aquatics, group fitness, intramural sports, informal sports, and informal fitness. The Leisure Motivation Scale (Beard and Ragheb, 1983) was completed by subjects after they engaged in a campus recreation activity. A 95% confidence level was established a priori, but a Bonferroni adjustment resulted in α ≤ .0015. Results from an analysis of variance indicated differences between activity type. Subjects engaged in informal sports were less motivated by competency/mastery factors than those engaged in other campus recreation activities. In addition, stimulus avoidance was a less predominant motivator in subjects participating in intramural sports than in those involved in other types of programs. These results suggest that students engaged in different activities are motivated by different factors and have implications for campus recreation programmers and marketers as they design programs.