Self-Determination Theory-Based Promotion Intervention for Physical Exercise Behavior in Chinese College Students

Abstract

Although the health benefits of physical exercise are widely recognized, the physical fitness level of college students is still very poor in recent years, and the decrease in physical exercise is the direct cause of the decline in the physical fitness level of college students, and how to improve the physical fitness of college students has been the focus of global public health concerns. This study takes self-determination theory as the theoretical basis of the research, explores the promotion path of college students' exercise behavior change, tries to establish and validate the intervention model of exercise behavior of self-determination theory, and is able to take effective interventions to provide theoretical basis for stimulating and promoting the form of autonomous motivation for college students and provide effective service and practice.

Therefore, this study constructed a self-determination theoretical model to predict Chinese college students' physical exercise behaviors, and applied the theoretical model to conduct an intervention study on college students' exercise behaviors using a quasi-experimental design. Research objective 1: is to construct a theoretical model for predicting exercise behavior suitable for the Chinese college student population; Research objective 2: is to test the revised theoretical model using a cross-sectional study; Research objective 3: is to apply the theoretical model using a longitudinal intervention study. Research Methods: The mechanism of the influence of autonomy support provided by physical education teachers on college students' exercise behavior was studied mainly by using literature, questionnaire survey, experimental method and mathematical statistics.

The main conclusions are as follows:

1. The self-determined exercise behavior model is applicable to the Chinese college student population; autonomy support, basic psychological needs, and autonomous motivation are important constituents that promote college students' physical exercise behavior.

2. The self-determined exercise model can effectively explain and predict the exercise behavior of college students, and the chain-mediated model constructed using structural equation modeling has good fit and simplicity.

Autonomy support provided by physical education instructors positively affects college students' behavior toward exercise (β= 0.235, R2= 0.06, P＜0.01).

Basic psychological needs completely mediated the relationship between autonomy support and the effect of exercise behavior (β= 0.304, R2=0.11, P＜0.01).

Autonomous motivation partially mediated the relationship between autonomy support and the impact of exercise behavior (β= 0.465, R2=0.25, P＜0.01).

Autonomy support positively predicted college students' exercise behavior through the chain-mediated effects of basic psychological needs and autonomous motivation (R2=0.26). The path of autonomy support→basic psychological needs→autonomous motivation→exercise behavior, had an indirect effect of 1.825, 95% CI [1.354, 2.322] indicating a significant chain mediation effect.

3. An applied study based on the self-determined exercise model was conducted with 200 college students in a longitudinal intervention experiment, and the results verified that the intervention of exercise autonomy support significantly influenced college students' basic psychological needs satisfaction, autonomous motivation, and exercise behavior. Students in the experimental group, who adopted the autonomy support strategy, were significantly higher than the control group in terms of basic psychological needs satisfaction, autonomous motivation level and exercise behavior.

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