Physical activity and perceived benefits, but not barriers, to exercise differ by sex and school year among college students.

COLLEGE students; RESISTANCE training; ANALYSIS of variance; PHYSICAL activity; SEX distribution; EXERCISE; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; QUESTIONNAIRES

Objective: To assess whether sex or school year influence physical activity and exercise (PA/EX) behaviors and perceived benefits and barriers of PA/EX among college students. Participants: Participants were 862 (78% female; 20.1 ± 1.4 years) college students. Methods: The International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Exercise Benefits and Barriers Scale, and resistance training (RT) questions were completed online. Results: Factorial ANOVA (sex x year) determined no significant interaction effects of sex and school year in behaviors or perceived benefits and barriers (all p >.05). Males reported higher levels of PA/EX and RT than females (p <.05) with no differences by school year (p =.34). Benefits Scale scores and some of its subscales were higher for males and first-year students compared to females and third- and fourth-year students (all p <.05). Conclusion: PA/EX promotion programs may need to be tailored differently based on sex and school year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of American College Health is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)