Mina koohi - Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Lila Sabbaghian Rad - Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Amir Ahmad Mozaffari - Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Background: The purpose of the present research was to examine the barriers to participation of students in intramural sports. Materials and methods: The population consisted of 26000 students of the Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University (IAU). 375 BSc, MSc, and PhD students (238 female and 137 male students) who did not participate in any sports program were randomly selected as the sample. Data were collected using a questionnaire with 31 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale and with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.79. The instrument included 9 barriers: promotional and information, management and planning, cultural, timing, structural, motivational, financial, familial, and physical and psychological. Result and discussion: The results showed that there is a significant negative relationship between all the Components and participation in intramural sports except for structural barriers. Moreover, management and promotional and information barriers were the most important and physical and psychological barriers were the least important. The results also showed that there is a significant difference between male and female students in family and cultural barriers at the 0.05 significance level. There was also a significant difference between students of different degrees in structural barriers. Conclusion: Regarding to the current research results we can propose to the responsible to carefully organize sport programs based on the needs and interests of students with regards to the cultural aspects.

Participation, barriers, intramural sports, students