Attitudes are essentially important in determining a people’s peculiarities and response to services provided. This study, titled ‘assessment of residents’ attitudes towards recreation in Bida-Nigeria’ was achieved through field observation and the administration of 969 structured questionnaires using systematic sampling to select respondents from four strata of men, women, youths and children in Cheniyan and Nassarafu wards. With the aid of the SPSS and EXCEL packages, data were coded and presented in statistical diagrams and tables, and analyzed using percentage, Chi-Square Test and the Spearman’s Rank Correlation. Study evidence revealed that though residents commonly preferred recreational activities such as dancing, gardening, walking, traditional recreation and football, they were constrained from participating in active recreation due to pre-occupation with family and fear of sustaining injuries. The result of the Chi-Square Test, which showed that men and women demonstrated poor attitudes towards physical exercises, confirmed that finding, and revealed that though gender did not influence residents’ attitudes towards active recreation, occupation and marital status did. Further findings indicated that though youths and children had positive attitudes towards active recreation, the recreational facilities desired by the youths were lacking in Bida. The study concluded by suggesting enlightenment programmes, building and maintenance of desired neighbourhood recreational facilities for residents, recreation insurance schemes and recreation with pay to address poor attitudes and encourage more residents’ participation in the active form of recreation.

Every human being needs a leisure time which could be utilized in certain recreational activities for rejuvenation. Positive recreation is neither a luxury nor unproductive activity, but a fundamental human need required to stay healthy. However, attitude can be one of the most difficult barriers to recreation participation (Bedni, 2000; Smith et al., 2005). Obinna et al. (2009) equally contend that attitude to recreation is one of the recreation challenges in the rural and urban areas of Nigeria.