An Attempted Determination of the Latent Structure of Leisure-time Sporting and Other Recreation Activities’ Characteristics

The aim of this study was to determine the latent structure of characteristics of leisure-time sporting and other recreation activities practised in the Republic of Croatia. The analysis was based on the survey of 1,126 adults of both sexes who filled in an open-ended questionnaire, which resulted in a list of 93 items sporting and other recreation activities that the subjects wrote as answers to the questions regarding their participation in sporting and other recreation activities according to their own preferences and attitudes as well as their experience. Taking into account the existing well known approaches to classifications, a new solution and elaborated. On the basic of the basic information about recreation activities ten variables were obtained. Factor analysis was applied, interpreted and discussed. In accordance with the Guttman-Kaiser criterion, nine factors were obtained that explained 95% of the total variance. The factors were, as a rule, defined by only one criterion variable each. Therefore, the expected latent structure of the characteristics describing leisure-time sporting and other recreation activities was not obtained.