Investigating Male and Female Teachers’ and Employees’ Leisure Time Focusing on Physical Activities and Its Relationship with their Self-efficacy: The Case of Educational Organization in Qazvin

Leisure time provides an opportunity for refreshment, personal development, increasing the range of interests, selfefficacy, family cohesion and job motivation. Accurate planning for leisure time and regular physical activities are considered as behaviors which enhance the mental health and self-efficacy. The current study aimed to investigate both male and female teachers’ and employees’ leisure time and its relationship with self-efficacy in educational organization of Qazvin province. Materials and methodology: The current field study is a descriptive, correlational one. The statistical population consisted of all the teachers and employees of the educational organization in Qazvin province in the academic year 2012-2013. A total number of 375 people were included in the sample. Instrument: Sherer’s self-efficacy scale and leisure-time questionnaire were used. Its validity was confirmed by the expert judgment and its reliability was calculated through Cronbach alpha as 0.80. Data analysis procedures: Both descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson product-moment correlation, t-test, Chi-square) were run through SPSS 18.00. Findings: The results revealed a significant difference among teachers and employees in terms of the way they spend their leisure time. However, teachers had more physical activities than employees. A significant difference among teachers’ and employees’ physical activities was found in terms of gender in favor of males. The results were quite the same for self-efficacy. Conclusion: It seems necessary to raise the consciousness of different strata of the society considering the positive impacts of leisure time and doing physical activities in it through precise planning in order to persuade individuals to take more part in these activities.