Understanding college student’s motivation for physical activity participation: The role of gender, sport type and activity level

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the motivational factors which has an influence on college students' participation in recreational physical activities. In this sense, gender, sport type (team or/and individual sport) and level of physical activity (MET scores) differences within motivational dimensions were examined. In the frame of the current study, a convenience sampling strategy was utilized. 383 Middle East Technical University students (Mage= 21.42, SD=3.30) voluntarily participated to this study. Data were gathered with an instrument composing of three sections; a demographic information part, a self-report instrument for measuring physical activity, and Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale (PALMS). Physical condition was found to be the most important participation motive, On the other hand, others expectations motive was the least important physical activity participation motive for Turkish college students. When physical activity participation motivations were compared with regard to gender, there was not any significant difference except for the appearance motivation. Females rated appearance motive lower than males for engaging in physical activity. However, significant sport type and level of physical activity differences were found. One-way MANOVA results revealed that team sport participants had significantly higher other's expectations motivation with compared to individual sport participants. With respect to activity level difference, higher physically active participants have higher motivations and there were significant differences in competition, mastery and enjoyment motivations among medium and vigorous level physical activity participants. The knowledge of the most significant motives for physical activity participation according to variations of the individuals can help practitioners to lead individuals to activities that best suit them and that best motivate them which is very important to start and continue to any physical activity.

The relationship between exercise-related expectancies and exercise behaviour in adolescent athletes

“…It makes sense that those who like to spend time with friends playing sports are also more likely to play together in a team and/or train together with them. These results are also consistent with previous studies in which team athletes had higher expectancies (Yazıcı, 2016 ) and cared more about affiliation (Molanorouzi et al, 2015 ). As peer relationships become more important from early to mid-adolescence, it would be interesting to find out in longitudinal studies whether the correlation between exercise behaviour and social EOEs also changes with age.…”

“…Also, male athletes report more perceived competence, self-esteem and physical self-worth than girls (Inchley et al, 2011 ). Therefore, it is not surprising that female adolescents are driven more by extrinsic motivation for sports compared to their male peers (Yazıcı, 2016 ). Furthermore, an older study found that girls choose to participate in sports more often because of social reasons while boys indicate reasons such as mastery and competitions (Eccles & Harold, 1991 ).…”

“…Moreover, group athletes had, in general, greater expectancies than individual athletes. Also, those who participated in both individual and team sports together indicated greater expectancies than those who only did individual sports (Yazıcı, 2016 ).…”

Percepción y expectativas de estudiantes universitarios sobre la participación en el deporte representativo

“…Es por esto que se encuentran investigaciones que van direccionadas a identificar las necesidades de los deportistas universitarios, tal y como lo plantean Fernández y Quintero (2018), para sustentar la idea de entrenarlos en habilidades de rendimiento. En un estudio realizado por Yazici et al (2016) se encontró que los deportistas que practican deportes individuales, al estar fatigados académica y físicamente, disminuían sus niveles de motivación y con esto su sentido de pertenencia frente al deporte, mientras que los practicantes de deportes de conjunto mantienen sus niveles de motivación y compromiso con la práctica deportiva, por el hecho de sentirse parte de un grupo.…”