An examination of the physical activity levels and basic psychological needs of university students: Basic psychology needs of university students

The aim of this research is to examine the physical activity levels and basic psychological needs of university students according to various variables. The survey model, which is one of the quantitative research models, was used in the study. The population of the research consists of Pamukkale University students in the 2021-2022 academic year. 41,480 university students, and the sample consists of 558 students determined by the sampling method that can be easily found from the universe. A personal information form created by the researcher to collect data, an international physical activity questionnaire to determine physical activity levels, and a basic psychological needs scale to determine basic psychological needs were used. The normality test of the data was performed with Shapiro Wilk analysis. The normal distribution of the data in physical activity and basic psychological needs scores according to gender was detected and a significant difference was analyzed in independent groups with T-Test. According to the level of physical activity, Mann Whitney U analysis was used in the difference analysis as the data did not show normal distribution. Pearson correlation analysis was used for the relationship between physical activity level and basic psychological level of need. All data were tested at 0.05 significance  level. As a result of the research, there was no significant difference in the comparison of the physical activity score and the basic psychological needs score of the university students according to gender. Considering all university students and according to the gender variable, a positive relationship was found except for male students between physical activity score and psychological need score