The role of leisure recreation in advancing social cohesion within local communities in North-west States, Nigeria

Abstract

This study is on the role of leisure and recreation in advancing social cohesion within local communities in North West States -Nigeria. One research question and one hypothesis were formulated to guide the study and the study was delimited to social cohesion. The respondents of the study were local residence of the selected states of North West States. Descriptive research design of survey type was used for this study and multistage sampling technique was used to select the sample size of the respondents availability sampling was used were all the respondents present at the time of questionnaire distribution were used as population and sample of the study totalling four hundred and twenty (420), A researcher’s developed questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection and a reliability index of 0.76 was obtained from a pilot study. Four hundred and twenty (420) questionnaires were distributed and four hundred and nineteen (419) were duly completed and returned for analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to organize and describe the bio-data of the respondents while one way sample t-test statistics was used to test the sub-hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study indicates that leisure recreation play a significant role on the development and advancement of social cohesion of local communities in the North West States-Nigeria and therefore the paper recommended that leisure recreational activities should not be overlooked for they can influence the development and advancement of social cohesion in communities of North West States and can also offer opportunities for interaction in open spaces and natural environments that can play a valuable role in an individual’s sense of attachment to the area in which they live and the local community more generally.