Motives of Future Elementary School Teachers to Be Physically Active

Miguel Ángel Durán-Vinagre, Sebastián Feu, Susana Sánchez-Herrera and Javier Cubero
Additional contact information
Miguel Ángel Durán-Vinagre: Faculty of Education, University of Extremadura, Avd. de Elvas S/N, 06006 Badajoz, Spain
Sebastián Feu: Faculty of Education, University of Extremadura, Avd. de Elvas S/N, 06006 Badajoz, Spain
Susana Sánchez-Herrera: Faculty of Education, University of Extremadura, Avd. de Elvas S/N, 06006 Badajoz, Spain
Javier Cubero: Faculty of Education, University of Extremadura, Avd. de Elvas S/N, 06006 Badajoz, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the motives for engaging in sports activities and the self-determination index (SDI) and how this in turn predicts the intentionality of future elementary school teachers to be physically active. Method: A total of 331 first-year students of the teacher training degree participated, 34.4% men and 65.6% women (M = 20.02; SD = 2.55). They answered the following questionnaires: “Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-3”, “Motives for Physical Activity Measure-Revised” and “Intention to be Physically Active”. Results: Fitness, fun and care of one’s appearance are the motives most valued by university students. A regression analysis (structural equation modeling) revealed that appearance and social motives were negatively related to SDI, although the model clearly predicted the intention to be physically active ( R 2 = 0.74). A second model, which positively related the appearance and competence motives with the intention to be active, improved the coefficient of determination ( R 2 = 90) and fit index. Conclusions: The motives for engaging in physical activity influence university students in different ways in relation to the SDI and strongly predict the intention to be physically active.

Keywords: physical activity; motivation; self-determination index; university students (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4393/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4393/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:12:p:4393-:d:373366

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().