Effects of Urban and Rural Residents' Behavior Differences in Sports and Leisure Activity: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior and Structural Equation Modeling

Because the urban and rural residents' sports and leisure behaviors were different, to find out the factors influencing these differences was the purpose of this study. Therefore we selected urban and rural residents in Sichuan province as the research object to start our study. This study which was based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) as the research method. Firstly we constructed the conceptual model and put forward a series of assumptions. Then we used questionnaire survey to obtain firsthand information, at the same time we used ARMOS17.0 to work out the model. At last we verified our original assumption with the model. Research showed that: (1) The influence on the urban and rural residents' sports and leisure behavior from external objective factors (social atmosphere, venues, facilities, etc.) was much larger than that from the intrinsic objective factors (leisure time, income, physical condition, etc.); (2) The richness of sports and leisure activities, venues, facilities and the social atmosphere impacted the behavior of urban residents much more than that of rural residents; (3) The attitude to affirm and recognize sports and leisure had much more influence on urban residents; (4) While rural residents more cared about the views from family, friends even government.