Adult Motivation for Practicing Physical Activities in Academia

Abstract

The existence of specific factors which influence practice of physical activities in adults, and improvement of working places and conditions, after controlling for age and other characteristics. The awareness of the importance of specialized guidance in the field of physical education and kinetotherapy, that can help adults improve their knowledge of it. Organized exercise should result in increased quality of life and professional performance. Research design was cross-sectional, results were based on classical methods of investigation: scientific documentation, questionnaire-based survey, and graphical interpretation. The survey was carried out in 2015 based on a questionnaire designed by the authors, with 20 questions chosen so that the answers were as objective as possible, leading to a high rate of accuracy. There were 42 subjects (59.52% men and 40.47% women), aged between 28 and 59 years which are teaching staff, researchers and auxiliary staff at the University of Bucharest. The study showed that physical maintenance activities elicit most interest from 80.95% of participants, followed by sport activities 26.19%, and therapeutic activities 19.04%. The age distribution is: 45-50 years old 28.57%, 40-45 years old 19.04%, 25-30 years old 16.66%, 35-40 years old 11.90%, 30-35 years old and 50-55 years old both with 9.52% , with 55-60 years old having only 4.7%. Results confirm assumptions, identifying motivational factors of practicing physical exercise in an organized setting, showing the psychological and social reasons that determine adults to do sport.