Relationship between motivation, physical activity practice and well- and ill-being in university students

Abstract

The objective of the present work was to study the existence of differences between male and female university students' physical activity practice, their motivation and experiences of well- and ill-being. We also tested the relationships between the study variables. The participants of the present work were 467 university students (female = 263; M-age = 21.26; SD = 4.21) who completed a packet of questionnaires. The results indicated that male students had higher levels of physical activity, higher autonomous motivation, higher self-esteem and lower stress. Results also indicated that autonomous motivation positively correlated with well- being and negatively correlated with ill-being indicators. Controlled motivation and a motivation negatively correlated with self-esteem and positively correlated with ill-being indicators. We highlight the importance of promoting quality motivation to foster people physical activity practice and well-being.