Effects of Motivational Change: Two Mandatory Physical Activity-Based Wellness Programs at a South Texas Hispanic Serving Institution

Abstract

Physical inactivity is one of the leading risk factors for chronic diseases and illness. Unfortunately, physical activity (PA) participation drops as individuals age with the largest decline between the ages of 18 to 21, which is traditional college age. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to examine change of motivation to PA participation and adherence for college students enrolled in a two pedagogically different PA based mandatory wellness program in a South Texas four-year Hispanic Serving Institution. This dissertation is a preliminary version. Future publications will include revisions and will be different from this dissertation submission. This dissertation is broken into three primary sections. Chapter II is a review of current literature. The studies in Chapter II focus on outcomes for college students enrolled in a require PA course. Findings of these studies include 1) a steady drop in required PA college courses, 2) theoretical frameworks primarily focus on college student’s stage of behavior, with only a few utilizing motivation and long-term adherence to PA, 3) very little PA literature focus on racial/ethnic minorities, and 4) only a couple studies focus on the effectiveness of pedagogical delivery methods in required PA courses. Chapter III evaluated possible changes to motivation for college students enrolled in a required PA course. The Behavior Regulation to Exercise Questionnaire 2 survey is designed to measure the Organismic Integration Theory’s motivational sub-scales (e.g. amotivation, extrinsic regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic regulation). Data were analyzed from 383 college students enrolled in the required PA course. Findings of Chapter III suggest that college-students participating in a required PA course may experience positive motivational changes to PA participation and adherence. Finally, Chapter IV examines possible changes to college students’ PA motivation in a flipped pedagogical design within a required PA course. A total of 152 college students’ responses to the BREQ-2 survey were assessed. The flipped course used in Chapter IV only reflected minimal changes across the OIT motivational sub-scales to PA. The results suggest that a flipped delivery method may not be an effective pedagogical approach to maximizing PA motivational changes among college students.