Recreational Activities and Motivation Among Young People

These days, a sedentary lifestyle lacking in exercise has been dominating people's lives, and very few people are motivated to do sports.Motivation is a highly important factor, as it plays a role in people's daily lives, actions or even in sports.As for our free time, both passive and active recreational activities appear, corresponding to trends.In terms of an active lifestyle and prevention, the role of recreational sports is becoming increasingly appreciated among health-conscious consumers, who prefer to practice them.Several studies have shown that regular recreational sports represent prevention against several lifestyle-related diseases (such as diseases resulting from stress, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, certain tumorous conditions, etc.).This is why recreational sports are a great means of prevention, being able to preserve individuals' health in a cost-efficient manner.Methodology: Our study used a questionnaire to examine the recreational habits of inhabitants in Romania and Hungary, in which we focused mainly on their sporting habits (N=612).The results obtained in the questionnaire were processed and analysed using the SPSS software.We calculated some basis statistics (mean, dispersion, median, mode).A chi2 test was used to examine the correlations.Results: The results confirm that passive recreational activities (watching TV, listening to music, reading, surfing the internet) are popular in people's lives.Hungarian respondents' activeness in sports is also confirmed as opposed to Romanian respondents.Those who do sports in their free time have noticed several positive effects on themselves.Eighty percent of respondents would be open to new methods, willing to participate in sports-related events at their workplace / school / university.The majority of respondents would do more sports if there were a person in their lives or among their acquaintances who could motivate them.