Abstract:

Research reports a decline in physical activity in the transition from high school into university. Furthermore, complex societal and technological changes influence this trend. For example, female sports participation has increased, physical education and outdoors activities have decreased, and electronic entertainment has increased notably, which has been linked with health risks such as sedentary lifestyle and obesity.

Lack of physical activity has been linked with severe health risks, but also with lesser memory, learning and concentration. However, scarce attention has been paid to the relationships between university students’ physical activity, and aspects like academic self-regulation and procrastination.

Based on these antecedents, we analyzed male and female university students’ physical activity, its characteristics and motives, and their relationships with academic self-regulation and procrastination.

Participants of the present study were (N = 783) university students (472 women and 311 men). A vast majority (95%) was 24 years old or younger (M = 20.63, SD = 6.06). Instruments included the Spanish Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (perseverance, goal setting, decision making and learning from mistakes), the Pure Procrastination Scale (implemental delay, decisional procrastination, and lateness), a self-report questionnaire regarding Physical Activity and its characteristics, and the Motives for Physical Activity Measure – Revised (enjoyment, competence, social, fitness, and appearance).

Reports of physical activity were compared between the year before university and the year of the study. Academic self-regulation and procrastination were compared between students who practiced physical activity and who did not. Furthermore, we analyzed motives for physical activity and their relationships with students’ academic self-regulation and procrastination.

Results show that more percentage of male students practiced physical activity than females, both before (78.8% versus 63.6%) and during university (59.5% versus 41.9%); and that the decline in female university students’ physical activity was steeper. Male students also practiced more minutes per week.

Students who practiced physical activity scored lower on all procrastination dimensions and higher on all self-regulation dimensions except learning from mistakes. Furthermore, competence, enjoyment, and social motives were positively associated with amount of physical activity; whereas appearance and fitness motives were not. Competence and fitness motives were positively associated with academic goal setting; and enjoyment and social motives were positively associated with learning from mistakes.

Our findings suggest that intrinsic motives, implicit in traditional group sports, may be better predictors of the amount of physical practice, as well as of dimensions of academic self-regulation; whereas extrinsic motives may play more modest roles.

University higher education should promote students’ healthy lifestyles and help them avoiding health risks. However, a promotion based on a fitness motive might prove insufficient. Addressing contemporary trends in sedentary lifestyle and decreased physical activity linked to higher education may be important, and universities may find it useful to address these from perspectives including considerations of gender and personal motives.

Keywords:

Physical activity, academic self-regulation, procrastination, university students, gender-differences, health.