Importance of Motivation on Physical Activity Behavior and Knowledge about Benefits of Physical Activity

Motives for participating in physical activity were assessed through a questionnaire (MPAM-R) and were used to measure motives to participate in physical activity (PA). Two groups of university students with the same major (kinesiology/healthy lifestyle) from two different countries took the questionnaire and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant difference between the two groups in their motives for participating in physical activity: Wilks’ λ = .78, F(5, 69) = 3.79, p = .004, partial η 2 = .22. Also, the group with the lower motivation to participate in PA were significantly younger (p < .01), had lower BMI (p = .02), had higher PA measured with pedometers (p <. 01), and were more knowledgeable about benefits of PA (p < .001). The results suggested that higher motivation to participate in PA measured by MPAM-R not be enough to influence PA behavior positively. However, whether a student was from the Czech Republic or U.S. (Beta = -.51) the score on the Interest/Enjoyment intrinsic motivation factor (Beta = 3.5) was statistically significant predictor (p<.001 for both) and accounted for 35% of the total variance (r = .60) in knowledge score about the benefits of PA.