Motivations and physical activity habits in university students

The aim of this study was to analyze habits and motivation towards practicing physical-sports activities among university students. A sample of 608 university students from the Santiago de Compostela campus, selected by stratified random sampling, participated in the study. For data analysis, two groups (men vs. women) were established and comparisons were made by means of the chi-square and t-tests of Student, placing the level of significance at p < .05. Results display that 74.35% of college students practiced some type of physical-sports activities, and 34.38% of respondents claimed that they practiced three or more times per week. The average age of abandonment of physical-sports practice was 18.42 years old. Physical exercise was the main motivation among students who practiced some physical or sports activities. The most important reason for abandoning physical activity was the lack of time for studying.