Promoting Physical Activity Habits after Completing Secondary School: Does the Age Matter?

María Huertas González-Serrano, Rómulo Jacobo González-García, Ana Gómez-Tafalla, Ignacio Refoyo Román, Fernando García-Pascual and Ferran Calabuig ()
Additional contact information
María Huertas González-Serrano: Department of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Rómulo Jacobo González-García: Campus Capacitas, Universidad Católica de Valencia, 46110 Valencia, Spain
Ana Gómez-Tafalla: Department of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Ignacio Refoyo Román: Departamento de Deportes, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Fernando García-Pascual: Department of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Ferran Calabuig: Department of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain

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

Abstract: Physical inactivity is one of the most important problems in our society, especially during adolescence. During this stage of schooling, students practice physical activity in physical education classes, but after they finish school, many of them stop practicing it. This research aims to determine which variables predict the intention to practice physical activity after finishing secondary school and to discover the effect that age during adolescence has on these predictive variables. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of secondary school students. The results show that physical exercise identity influences the three antecedents of this theory, while the attitude towards the behaviour (β = 0.13; p < 0.05), perceived behavioural control (β = 0.46; p < 0.05), and physical self-concept (β = 0.41; p < 0.05), have a statistically significant influence on the intention to be physically active. Moreover, when the age is lower, is more important to develop a positive perceived behavioural control and physical exercise identity. Moreover, for younger male adolescents instead of the physical exercise itself, identity seems more important in developing a positive attitude towards behaviour. Likewise, in young female adolescents a low level of support from their close environment (subjective norm) leads to dropping out. The research concludes with the importance of including these variables in physical education classes to promote physical activity practice after completion of secondary school. Some practical implications are presented.

Keywords: intention to be physically active; physical exercise identity; physical self-concept; theory of planned behaviour; physical education; secondary education (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/1660-4601/19/21/14160/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14160/ (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:14160-:d:957489

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 ().