Cargando…

University Students’ Motives-for-Physical-Activity Profiles: Why They Practise and What They Get in Terms of Psychological Need Satisfaction

Physical activity (PA) is an important habit for overall health and quality of life, but it tends to recede as young adults transition from high school into university. The present study sought to understand, in the case of university students that still practice PA, their motives for PA and their r...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Valenzuela, Rafael, Codina, Nuria, Pestana, José Vicente
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7835284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33510695
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.621065
_version_ 1783642488295129088
author Valenzuela, Rafael
Codina, Nuria
Pestana, José Vicente
author_facet Valenzuela, Rafael
Codina, Nuria
Pestana, José Vicente
author_sort Valenzuela, Rafael
collection PubMed
description Physical activity (PA) is an important habit for overall health and quality of life, but it tends to recede as young adults transition from high school into university. The present study sought to understand, in the case of university students that still practice PA, their motives for PA and their relationships with psychological need satisfaction (PNS) and characteristics of practice regularity (frequency, duration, team, competitive, coach, league, federation, and type of day of the week for PA). Participants were 423 university students who reported to practice PA (203 identified as men, 191 as women, 29 did not report gender), with ages ranging from 18 to 30 years old (M = 19.91, SD = 1.97). Measures assessing motives for PA, PNS, and PA characteristics were completed. Hierarchical, followed by iterative, cluster analysis was used and four naturally occurring groupings of university students were identified based on their motives for PA: one extrinsic-motives cluster (with both extrinsic motives—fitness and appearance—above the mean), one all-motives cluster (with all five motives above the mean), one intrinsic-motives cluster (with all three intrinsic motives—enjoyment, competence, social—above the mean), and one low-motives cluster (with all motives below the mean). Groupings were compared in terms of the characteristics of their practice regularity (frequency, duration, competition, team, coach, league, federation, type of day of the week used for PA) and their levels of PNS (of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in PA). Significant between-group differences were observed in the duration of single principal PA sessions, minutes per week practicing main PA, total PA minutes per week, and type of day of the week used for PA. The number of days per week devoted to the principal PA and the number of total PAs practiced were similar across all four clusters. With regard to between-group differences in psychological need satisfaction in PA by cluster, these analyses showed the existence of four clearly distinguishable naturally occurring groupings based on motives for PA, which gives researchers and practitioners the possibility to analyze and implement tailored interventions aimed at promoting PA among university students.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7835284
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-78352842021-01-27 University Students’ Motives-for-Physical-Activity Profiles: Why They Practise and What They Get in Terms of Psychological Need Satisfaction Valenzuela, Rafael Codina, Nuria Pestana, José Vicente Front Psychol Psychology Physical activity (PA) is an important habit for overall health and quality of life, but it tends to recede as young adults transition from high school into university. The present study sought to understand, in the case of university students that still practice PA, their motives for PA and their relationships with psychological need satisfaction (PNS) and characteristics of practice regularity (frequency, duration, team, competitive, coach, league, federation, and type of day of the week for PA). Participants were 423 university students who reported to practice PA (203 identified as men, 191 as women, 29 did not report gender), with ages ranging from 18 to 30 years old (M = 19.91, SD = 1.97). Measures assessing motives for PA, PNS, and PA characteristics were completed. Hierarchical, followed by iterative, cluster analysis was used and four naturally occurring groupings of university students were identified based on their motives for PA: one extrinsic-motives cluster (with both extrinsic motives—fitness and appearance—above the mean), one all-motives cluster (with all five motives above the mean), one intrinsic-motives cluster (with all three intrinsic motives—enjoyment, competence, social—above the mean), and one low-motives cluster (with all motives below the mean). Groupings were compared in terms of the characteristics of their practice regularity (frequency, duration, competition, team, coach, league, federation, type of day of the week used for PA) and their levels of PNS (of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in PA). Significant between-group differences were observed in the duration of single principal PA sessions, minutes per week practicing main PA, total PA minutes per week, and type of day of the week used for PA. The number of days per week devoted to the principal PA and the number of total PAs practiced were similar across all four clusters. With regard to between-group differences in psychological need satisfaction in PA by cluster, these analyses showed the existence of four clearly distinguishable naturally occurring groupings based on motives for PA, which gives researchers and practitioners the possibility to analyze and implement tailored interventions aimed at promoting PA among university students. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-01-12 /pmc/articles/PMC7835284/ /pubmed/33510695 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.621065 Text en Copyright © 2021 Valenzuela, Codina and Pestana. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Valenzuela, Rafael
Codina, Nuria
Pestana, José Vicente
University Students’ Motives-for-Physical-Activity Profiles: Why They Practise and What They Get in Terms of Psychological Need Satisfaction
title University Students’ Motives-for-Physical-Activity Profiles: Why They Practise and What They Get in Terms of Psychological Need Satisfaction
title_full University Students’ Motives-for-Physical-Activity Profiles: Why They Practise and What They Get in Terms of Psychological Need Satisfaction
title_fullStr University Students’ Motives-for-Physical-Activity Profiles: Why They Practise and What They Get in Terms of Psychological Need Satisfaction
title_full_unstemmed University Students’ Motives-for-Physical-Activity Profiles: Why They Practise and What They Get in Terms of Psychological Need Satisfaction
title_short University Students’ Motives-for-Physical-Activity Profiles: Why They Practise and What They Get in Terms of Psychological Need Satisfaction
title_sort university students’ motives-for-physical-activity profiles: why they practise and what they get in terms of psychological need satisfaction
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7835284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33510695
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.621065
work_keys_str_mv AT valenzuelarafael universitystudentsmotivesforphysicalactivityprofileswhytheypractiseandwhattheygetintermsofpsychologicalneedsatisfaction
AT codinanuria universitystudentsmotivesforphysicalactivityprofileswhytheypractiseandwhattheygetintermsofpsychologicalneedsatisfaction
AT pestanajosevicente universitystudentsmotivesforphysicalactivityprofileswhytheypractiseandwhattheygetintermsofpsychologicalneedsatisfaction