Qualitative and Quantitative Analyzing the Students’ Perceived Constraints toward Involvement in Sporting Activities. A Cross-cultural Study between Iran and Hungary

Background & Purpose: The aim of this study is to qualitative and quantitative analyzing the students’ perceived constraints toward involvement in sporting activities in Iranian and Hungarian universities. The hierarchical model of leisure constraints was used as the theoretical framework of this research. 1315 students from Iranian public universities as well as 793 students from Hungarian public universities completed a self administrated questionnaire which was translated to Persian and Hungarian language. Also, 60 students from both countries participated in a semi-structured interview. A one sample t test and MANOVA were used for analysis the quantitative data. Also, the qualitative data was analyzed by content analyzing method. The results indicated that Iranian and Hungarian students were differently perceived intrapersonal and structural constraints however, they similarly experienced interpersonal constraints. Furthermore, Iranian female university students more than males experienced all of the categories of constraints whereas Hungarian students did not show any differences based on gender. From the results it can be concluded that different socio-economic situation between Iranian and Hungarian students, regardless of the cultural differences, could be affect the attitude and their tendency to sporting activities. The negative attitude of Iranian people to women sport might be one of the most important factors affect the participation of female students in sport. On the other hand, improving the technology as well as unpleasant economic situation of Hungary and Hungarian universities might be affecting the level of Hungarian students’ involvement in sporting activities.