Attitude of college students towards physical exercise based on the Health Action Process Approach Theory

Objective To investigate the college students' attitude toward physical exercise in Shanxi,and to lay foundations for the promotion of college students' physical exercise and the implementation of related behavior intervention.Methods A total of 932 college students were selected from 5 colleges and universities in Shanxi Province by stratified random cluster sampling,and a questionnaire in physical exercise stage was provided to them by using the scale of physical exercise attitudes.EpiData 3.1 and SPSS 20.0 were employed to collect and analyze the effective data.Results Among all the respondents,the number of students in the intention stage(303) were the largest,while students in the maintenance phase(73) took the smallest proportion.The college students got a highest overall score in their attitude toward physical exercise (242.72±28.44),which showed that they were positive in exercise,but their scores of behavioral controls(22.14±4.75),subjective standard(17.38±3.41) and failure anxiety (13.80±4.23) were lower than the scale average.The scores of boys were significantly higher than girls in three dimensions:behavioral habit,behavioral intention and behavioral control(t=4.663,3.908,6.780,P<0.05).Girls had a higher objective attitude,behavioral cognitive and failure anxiety than boys(t =-2.181,-3.848,-2.533,P<0.05).In the dimension of behavioral cognitive,the class of 2014 was significantly lower than that of the other grades(F=3.830,P<0.05).There were of no statistical significance of the different scores between urban and rural area,of BMI attitudes toward physical exercise(P>0.05).The scores of overall scale and dimensions in behavioral attitude,objective attitude,behavioral habit,behavioral intention and emotion experience were increasing from the pre-intention stage to the maintenance stage(P<0.05).Conclusion In view of the actual conditions of students and characteristics of schools,and different psychological and behavioral characteristics of individual at various behavioral stages,the relevant departments should take appropriate intervention to ensure the formation and maintenance of their healthy behaviors,and to lay a foundation for their physical condition.