Differences between Participants and Non-Participants of Campus Recreation Offerings across Demographic Variables and Perceptions of the College Experience

Abstract

While outcomes associated with involvement in extracurricular activities have been shown to be linked to persistence and overall satisfaction with college life, there is still a paucity of recent research (Barcelona & Ross, 2002) that has examined the differences between college students who participate in campus recreation offerings and those who do not. Therefore, the primary purpose of this paper was to examine the association between students who participate in campus recreation programs and services and those who do not across demographic characteristics, as well as their perceptions of the overall college experience. A self-administered questionnaire was administered randomly to 389 students of a southeastern university during spring 2001. The findings in this study revealed that students were quite similar across demographic characteristics and perceptions of the college experience regardless of their participation in campus recreation programs and services. Despite the differing response categories for many of the demographic characteristics examined, expected responses nearly matched actual responses for the majority of each characteristic analyzed. Regardless of the findings, the use of this type of information would likely be valuable to a campus recreation department, as well as provide information for a division of student affairs to assist in better understanding the relationship between student involvement in recreational activities and the overall college experience.