Recreational sports are an important aspect of leisure activities that help relieve daily work stress. Recreational sports have a significant influence on human physiology and psychology. Physiologically, exercise has substantial benefits for promoting health and reducing mortality. Wen et al. highlighted that in Taiwan, regardless of gender or the existence of cardiovascular disease, people who exercise moderately (i.e., power walking) for an average of 15 min daily, or an accumulated 92 min per week, can experience up to a 14% decrease in mortality rate and can live an average of three years longer than those who do not exercise [1]. Jackson, Sui, Hébert, Church and Blair [2] and Sattelmair, Pertman and Forman [3] also reported that participation in recreational sports can reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases.

From a psychological perspective, leisure activities involve social interaction. Interaction between social groups through leisure activities not only promotes physical and mental health, but can also reduce psychological pressure. Leisure activities can enhance self-esteem, thereby engendering a positive attitude and facilitating psychological development [4]. Participating in leisure activities can also prevent the development of depression [5]. Therefore, as recreational sports promote both physiological and psychological well-being, the promotion of recreational sports participation should be an important element in public health campaigns.

An individual’s motivation is a major factor influencing one’s participation in sports activities [6]. In psychology, motivation is commonly used to describe the aspect and strength of an individual’s active involvement efforts [4]. However, it is difficult to discern which factors should be targeted by public health campaigns seeking to motivate recreational sports participation, as previous studies investigating this relationship primarily concentrated on specific regions, age groups or sports [6,7,8,9,10]. Therefore, while the findings of these studies have provided a variety of significant contributions to recreational sports exploration and promotion, on account of their limited study regions, age groups and recreational sports participants, their findings cannot be generalized to other environments, people or athletic activities, thus seriously affecting the inference validity of these studies.

Several related studies have demonstrated there to be substantial between-gender differences in recreational sports participation, with women reporting to be less interested in exercise and finding exercise less enjoyable than their male counterparts [4,7,10,11]. Tang [11] shows that there is a considerable relationship between gender and leisure activities. Girls are more inclined to static activities, while boys have a greater preference for dynamic activities. However, girls and boys are both reported to be interested in recreational sports participation for physical and mental health, personal interest and physical appearance. They also both enjoy participating in recreational activities [4,7]. Currently, research in Taiwan regarding public motivation for participating in recreational sports also remains limited to specific regions and specific groups.

Chuang [7] and James, Hsu, Redmond and Hope [12] reported that to increase exercise participation, exercise must be viewed as enjoyable and fun. Therefore, identifying the enjoyment that women obtain from exercise is important to increasing women’s participation in exercise. Therefore, as an analysis of the differences in recreational sports participation and motivation between genders in Taiwan remains lacking, we used the population of Taiwan as the sample for this investigation to explore the differences in behavioral factors and socioeconomic status that influence recreational sports participation and interests between genders.

This study examined the between-gender differences in factors motivating recreational sports participation among adults in Taiwan. The results indicated a significant difference in recreational sports participation among men and women. This is likely due to the comprehensive nature of our study sample, which was a representative sample of all of Taiwan. The findings of this study have a high degree of consistency, reliability and effectiveness in the inference, that is they have a good degree of internal validity and external validity. For all participants, Taiwanese with a higher educational attainment, older age and more urbanized area of residence were more likely to be interested in recreational sports. Additional factors, such as the desire to make friends, improve physical or mental health and to enhance one’s physical appearance were also associated with the motivation to participate in recreational sports. The factors associated with greater motivation among men were physical appearance and personal interest. Among women, older age and the performance of Taiwanese athletes at international sports competitions were associated with a greater motivation to participate in recreational sports.

The contribution of recreational sports toward psychological and physical health has been well-recognized. Wendel-Vosetal [18] conducted a longitudinal analysis in the Netherlands, and the study found that regardless of gender, a positive correlation existed between increased recreational sports participation time and physical health. Pondè and Santana [19] highlighted that participating in recreational sports is essential for maintaining mental health among female laborers who have a low income or are dissatisfied with their employment. Thomsson [20] reported that Swedish women believe that participating in recreational sports benefits their appearance and promotes weight loss; thus, it is extremely suitable for women. The findings reported by Thomsson contradict those of this study conducted in Taiwan. Taiwanese women do not show increased interest in recreational sports to improve their appearance. Conversely, Taiwanese men tend to participate in recreational sports to improve their appearance.

Among women, older age was related to enjoyment of recreational sports participation. Federico et al. [20] assessed the extent that socioeconomic differences influenced physical activity and sports among Italian adults. Their results showed that age was positively associated with non-organized physical activity, yet negatively correlated with sports conducted within an organized context among both men and women [21].

The results of this study regarding Taiwanese adults differed quite significantly from those reported by Federico et al. [20]. In Taiwan, age did not affect the enjoyment of recreational sports participation among men. Furthermore, older female participants exhibited greater interest in recreational sports compared to their younger counterparts. The OR for the 50 to 59 years age group compared to the 18 to 29 years age group of women was 3.28. Considering this comparison, we believe that when Taiwanese women begin working or enter marriage, they have the primary responsibility of caring for the family, as well as working, which leaves them insufficient time to participate in leisure activities. As these women mature, they may gradually increase their participation in recreational sports, because of reduced family care responsibilities or changing health status. Therefore, men should be encouraged to help with family chores to increase women’s leisure time and reduce their family care responsibilities. This may help increase young women’s interest and participation in recreational sports. Family-style recreational sports, as opposed to the traditional segregation of men and women, can also be adopted to help encourage the participation of young women.

Compared to Taiwanese men, Taiwanese women’s interest in recreational sports participation was more easily influenced by external stimuli. This study found that Taiwanese women’s interest in recreational sports participation increased when Taiwanese athletes performed well at international sports competitions. In contrast, men’s participation in recreational sports did not differ significantly because of the scores of Taiwanese athletes in international competitions. For example, after the Taiwanese baseball team won third place in the 2001 Baseball World Cup, audiences for the 2002 Chinese Professional Baseball League games increased by 57.62%. Although more precise data revealed that this increase was mostly an increase in the number of women attending, the results confirm that it increased public willingness to participate in leisure activities. During the same period, the number of people visiting baseball batting fields also increased rapidly.

In this study, we explored the factors underlying the differences in enjoyment of recreational sports participation among Taiwanese men and women. This study conducted a broad spectrum exploration of the factors affecting the public’s interest in leisure activity participation. Future studies should explore the between-gender differences of various types of recreational sports to enhance the current understanding of the Taiwanese public’s enjoyment of recreational sports participation.