Ranking the Motivations and the Impediments of the Youth's Athletic participation in Isfahan

The general objective of this study is to investigate and rank the motivations and the impediments of the youth's athletic participation and physical activities in Isfahan. The statistical population was the male and female members of Isfahan libraries with the age range of 14 to 30 years from whom 392 individuals were selected as the statistical sample according to Morgan table. In case of participation in athletics at leisure times, the youth completed the questionnaire of athletic motivation and they filled out the questionnaire of athletic participation impediments in case of the lack of physical activity and sports. The obtained information was described through statistical indices and it was analyzed by Friedman, Kruskal wallis and Mann-whitney U tests via SPSS software. The findings of the study showed that the major motivation of the youth in Isfahan in order to participate in physical exercises sequentially are obtaining enjoyment and happiness, keeping health, being in shape and beauty and physical fitness. In females, the motivations of being in shape and watching weight and in males the motivations of physical fitness, being competitive and with friends had higher priority. In youth with higher educational level, the motivations of obtaining enjoyment and happiness had greater importance and in youth with lower educational level the motivation of being with friends had higher priority. On the other hand, the most important impediments of the youth's athletics, on the basis of priority, were lack of the time and the plans overlap, weakness and laziness, economic status and the facilities condition. The statistical results specified that the facilities condition has greater importance in higher age group. Moreover two impediments of mental status and physical inability in individuals with lower education have higher priority. Generally it can be concluded that the basic factor of the youth participation in physical activities and sports, is attending to internal motivations and removing individual impediments.