Associations between Motives for Physical Exercise, Body Composition and Cardiorespiratory Fitness: A Cross-Sectional Study

Pablo Galan-Lopez, Isabel Lopez-Cobo, Irene García-Lázaro () and Francis Ries
Additional contact information
Pablo Galan-Lopez: Department of Communication and Education, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 41704 Seville, Spain
Isabel Lopez-Cobo: Department of Didactics and Educational Organization, University of Seville, 41013 Seville, Spain
Irene García-Lázaro: Department of Communication and Education, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 41704 Seville, Spain
Francis Ries: Department of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Seville, 41013 Seville, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-11

Abstract: Adolescents’ need for some minimum amount of daily physical exercise has been widely studied so as to assist better health outcomes and to reduce future obesity rates. However, the motivations of adolescents to exercise are less well-known. This manuscript aims to analyze the motives that explain the practice of physical exercise in adolescents and the possible associations with elements of body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness. For this purpose, the Self-Report of Motives for the Practice of Physical Exercise questionnaire (AMPEF) was administered to 917 students between 13–16 years of age (50.1% girls, 49.9% boys, M age = 14.82) from Seville, Spain. Subscales Ill-Health Avoidance and Positive Health, Revitalization and Enjoyment, Strength and Endurance, and Challenge represent the participants’ main reasons for practicing physical exercise. Associations between BMI and FAT % with the subscales Weight Management and Appearance (direct association) and Revitalization and Enjoyment (inverse association) were found. A direct association between cardiorespiratory fitness and Revitalization and Enjoyment, Competition, Strength, and Endurance and Challenge subscales was found for both genders. Conclusions emphasize the practice of physical exercise in adolescents due to intrinsic motives based on improving their state of health, increasing their levels of strength and endurance (boys), and achieving short-term objectives (girls).

Keywords: physical exercise; motivation; cardiorespiratory fitness; quantitative research; late childhood; adolescents’ health (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: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14128/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14128/ (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:21:p:14128-:d:957129

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 ().