Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-1991

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Recreation and Leisure Studies

Major Professor

Mary Dale Blanton

Committee Members

Ken Krick, Pat Beitel,

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify factors which prevent individuals from participating in white water rafting in the Eastern United States.

The Total Design Method (TDM) of telephone surveying was used to solicit information from a random sample of the general population of the Eastern United States. A questionnaire was developed and validated with a jury of professionals and pretested with 50 persons randomly selected. Eight interviewers were trained on how conduct telephone surveys.

Advance post cards informing the prospective respondent that they had been randomly selected to participate in a research study were designed and mailed.

The SAS computer program was used to analyze descriptive statistics. The Lotus computer program was utilized to produce the graphical representations of the data and the Epistat program was used vi to do limited inferential statistics.

It was discovered that less than one fifth of the general population had been white water rafting. About one fifth of the general population knew so little about the subject that they could not give a definition of the term white water rafting. About half of the population had no desire to go white water rafting.

The following major barriers, affecting more than a fourth of the population, were identified: (a) lack of time, (b) work commitments, (c) lack of desire participate, (d) perceived risk of the activity, ( e procrastination, (f) family commitments, (g) lack of knowledge on the subject, and (h) location of white water rivers. The following minor barriers, affecting between one fourth and one tenth of the population, were identified: (a) travel expenses, (b) physical demands of the activity, (c) price of the endeavor, (d) lack of companionship, (e) lack of ability to swim, and (f) dislike of water activities. to )

There was a definite set of barriers to white water rafting of which about half could be addressed to increase vii participation. The most predominant of these was lack of time.

Download
Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS