Exercise Participation Motives and Engaging In Sports Activity among University of Ljubljana Students.

AIM: The main aim of this study was to examine differences in sport participation motives, the frequency of engaging in sports activities according to gender, region and field of study, but also the association between the incidence of engaging in sports activity and the motivation for sports activity of students at the University of Ljubljana.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Five thousand two hundred seventy-one students completed The Exercise Motivations Inventory (EMI-2), with additional questions about 12 socio-demographic parameters.

RESULTS: The results reveal that most of the students are engaged in unorganized sports activities. Male students engage in sports activity more often than female students do. For male students, dominant participation motives are enjoyment, challenge, social recognition, affiliation, competition and strength but also endurance, for female students these are: stress and weight management, revitalisation, ill-health avoidance, positive health, appearance and nimbleness. Gender differences in participation motives are partly reflected also in differences according to the field of study. The correlations between the frequency of engaging in sports activity and the participation motives are mainly statistically significant. We did not find any significant differences in participation motives by region.

CONCLUSION: In spite of these discouraging findings, increasing physical activity among students continues to be a national priority.