Comparing motivation for physical activity among young people and adults

The paper presents the results of the study of motivation for physical activity among young people and young and mature adults and identifies the major and low priority motives. The study involved 76 adult women and 64 men regularly attending group sport classes in a fitness centre and 78 male and 140 female 1st and 2nd year students of Nizhnevartovsk State University. The latter were divided into two groups: the first group included students with physical activity was limited to mandatory physical education classes (39 male and 100 female students); the second group included students who do additional sports or fitness (39 male and 40 female students). For the purposes of the study we used a modified survey “Assessing motivation for physical activity”, originally designed by M.M. Bezrukikh, and applied mathematical statistics to analyze the data. The study showed how motivation for physical activity had changed over time. This paper presents a hierarchy of motivating factors reflecting the outcomes of the fitness activity expected by the survey participants. Those students engaged in additional physical activity have higher motivation for sports. The adult survey participants attending group sports classes in a fitness centre also show high levels of motivation and systematic approach to physical activity.