Effects of Required Physical Activity on College Students\u27 Attitudes

It was the intent of this researcher to investigate the effects including a physical activity component in a university-required personal wellness course had on attitudes toward physical activity and exercises. The study included two groups: 1) an experimental group of students enrolled in a personal wellness course in which there was a physical activity requirement; and 2) a control group of students enrolled in a personal wellness course in which there was no physical activity requirement. The Corbin Attitude Test served as the dependent variable (Appendix B). All subjects were pretested and posttested using the Corbin Attitude Test. The students in the experimental group were exposed to an additional physical activity requirement to their university-required personal wellness course. The physical activity component required the students to exercise at least twice per week at a perceived exertion level of four or above on the modified one to ten scale (Appendix C). Students in the control group were only required to complete the university-required personal wellness course which did not require a physical activity component. The effects of the physical activity component on students’ attitudes and the comparison of genders were analyzed using eight independent T-tests with the physical activity component serving as the independent variable. The analysis of the data showed no significant gain or decline in six of the eight independent T-tests. However, the control group which did not receive the physical activity component showed significant improvement from pretest to posttest. The data also showed a significant difference in males’ attitudes pretest compared to posttest toward physical activity and exercise