The Impact of the Structures of Planned Behavior Theory on Social Vitality of the Participants in Sports Aactivities

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Extended Abstract

Background
Social vitality refers to the dynamism and positive activity in a community, which makes citizens important to the community and to each other. Exercise is one of the basic factors in creating vitality and dynamism in a society. From this perspective, the country is not in a favorable situation. The theory of planned behavior can be used to identify the factors affecting social vitality. In this theory, in addition to the direct behavior of the individual, the behavioral intent can be measured. In this study, the planned behavior was defined as a behavior change that is created in citizens through educational programs and awareness about the effects of participating in sport activities. Accordingly, this study mainly aimed to present a structural model of participation in sport activities with a level of social vitality and investigate the moderating role of awareness based on the theory of planned behavior.
Methods
In this descriptive and correlational study, the survey method was adopted to collect the data. The study population consisted of 120,000 males and females participated in group and individual sport activities and having been introduced by Municipality of Isfahan. A total of 384 participants including 247 females with an average age of 42±14.1 and 137 males with an average age of 46±10.66 were selected as our final sample by adopting stratified random sampling. To collect the data, the questionnaires of Oxford Argil Happiness (OHI) (2001) and Planned Behavior of Karimi et al (2012) were used. The target population roughly included 77,000 females and 43,000 males from five regions: central, north, south, west, and east. In each region, an appropriate number of questionnaires were completed by the costomers of 15 sport centers in Isfahan, three stadiums in each region. It should be noted that the distribution of questionnaires was done after obtaining permission from the samples and ensuring their willingness to answer the questions as well as reassuring them about protecting the confidentiality of their information. The questionnaires were initially evaluated, and the individuals whose participation rate in the sport activities was less than three months or at least less than 12 consecutive sessions were excluded from the study. The distribution of the questionnares continued until the specified volume of statistical data was collected. Cranach's statistical test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and structural equation modeling were used to calculate the reliability of the questionnaires, the normality of the data, and the relationship between the variables, respectively. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and AMOS statistical softwares version 22, and the significance level was set at 0.05 for all tests.
Results
The results showed that 35.7% of the respondents were male and 64.3% of them were female with the age range of 15 to 55 years. Since the coefficients of skewness and elongation of the variables were all in the range of -2 to 2 and the significant value of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was more than 0.05 for all variables, it was determined that the data were normal. Taking into account the general fit indices of the structural equation model, it was concluded that measurement patterns had a good fit. In order to test the statistical significance of the hypotheses, two critical minor indices, CR and P, were employed. According to the research results, all hypotheses were confirmed considering their critical value and significance level. As for the critical value, hypotheses whose values were greater than 1.96, and a level of significance below 0.05, were approved and all our hypotheses met this assumption. Regarding the value of P, the hypotheses gaining a value less than 0.05 were confired. Accordingly, as presented in Table 1, all hypotheses were confirmed. It should be noted that the positive regression coefficients show the direct and positive effect of two variables in each hypothesis. The interactive effect of these two variables (Planned Behavior * Awareness) on the planned behavior variable was also measured. If the path coefficient of the interactive variable was significantly different from zero, there was a moderating effect. The f2 index was used to evaluate the effect of moderator variable, which was calculated using the following formula:

In this formula, the difference between the coefficients of determination in the main model and the interactive model is calculated to evaluate the overall effect, and the values of 0.02, 0.15, and 0.25 indicate low, medium, and high effects, respectively. As for our data, this coefficient was found to be 0.17. indicating an average effect of the modifier variable of awareness on the model; therefore, the third hypothesis of the study was also confirmed (Figure 1, Table 1). Accordingly, the model may have been displayed as the following figure:

Conclusion
When an individual exercises regularly on a daily basis to create vitality and fun as well as to enjoy optimal living, the first and foremost result of such an approach is the enhancement of social vitality, which has a direct effect on the secretion of pleasant hormones and indirect effect on formation of a desirable attitude towards life. Before the conduction of our study, other studies had identified the effects of exercise on physical, psychological, and social variables related to humans, which was consistent with our study results. However, our study results also showed that raising the awareness of people about the beneficial effects of exercise on social vitality as well as stabilizing their participatory behavior in sport activities may have facilitated the planning to maintain and promote the vitality of society, which is one of the most important pillars of the sustainable development.