Do Active Commuters Feel More Competent and Vital? A Self-Organizing Maps Analysis in University Students

Joachim Bachner, Xavier García-Massó, Isabel Castillo, Filip Mess and Javier Molina-García
Additional contact information
Joachim Bachner: Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health, Technical University of Munich, 80992 Munich, Germany
Xavier García-Massó: Department of Teaching of Musical, Visual and Corporal Expression, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Isabel Castillo: AFIPS Research Group, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Filip Mess: Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health, Technical University of Munich, 80992 Munich, Germany
Javier Molina-García: Department of Teaching of Musical, Visual and Corporal Expression, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: University students represent a population that faces high risks regarding physical inactivity. Research suggests that a regular engagement in physical activity (PA) may be more likely established when it leads to the experience of subjective vitality. Subjective vitality, in turn, is more likely achieved through physical activities that individuals feel competent in, and that take place in natural outdoor environments. An activity that may fulfill these conditions is active commuting to and from university (ACU). To examine whether and in which form ACU can combine this promising pattern of aspects, a person-oriented analysis was conducted. The sample contained 484 university students (59.3% females). Leisure-time PA, ACU by walking, ACU by cycling, subjective vitality, PA-related competence and body mass index were included as input variables in a self-organizing maps analysis. For both female and male university students, the identified clusters indicated that students who intensively engaged in ACU did not exhibit subjective vitality levels above average. Consistently, they did not show elevated levels of PA-related competence, which suggests that ACU does not support the perception of their physical abilities. Considerations regarding urban university environments lacking sufficient natural elements finally add to the conclusion that engaging in ACU does not suffice to establish a vitality-supportive and thus sustainable PA behavior. Additionally, the identified clusters illustrate a large heterogeneity regarding the interaction between leisure-time PA, body mass index and subjective vitality.

Keywords: person-oriented analysis; cluster; profile; well-being; competence; vitality; physical activity; active commuting; university; outdoor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7239/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7239/ (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:19:y:2022:i:12:p:7239-:d:837772

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 ().