Achievement goal theory and self-determined motivation theory represent two important theoretical perspectives to understand achievement outcomes (i.e., persistence) in the physical activity domain (Duda, 1992; Ryan & Deci, 2000). However, little research has been conducted integrating the two theoretical perspectives in the examination of student motivation and related achievement outcomes. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine relationships among achievement goals, self-determined motivation and persistence of students participating in physical activity classes, and to determine the role of achievement goals and self-determined motivation in predicting persistence, as well as the predictive attributes of achievement goals towards different levels of self-determined motivation. In the present study, achievement goals consist of mastery-approach (MAp), mastery-avoidance (MAv), performance-approach (PAp), and performance-avoidance (PAv) goals (i.e, 2 x 2 goal model; Elliot & McGregor, 2001). Self-determined motivation includes intrinsic motivation (IM), identified regulation (IR), external regulation (ER) and amotivation (AM). Both IM and IR represent higher levels of self-determined motivation. Participants were 249 college students (140female, 109male) enrolled in various physical activity classes including weight training, jogging, soccer, and tennis. They completed the Achievement Goals Questionnaire for Sport (Conroy et al., 2003), the Situational Motivation Scale (Guay et al., 2000), and a persistence measure during the last week of instruction. Correlational analyses revealed that IM was positively related to MAp and PAp, IR was positively related to MAp and MAv, and AM was positively related to PAp and PAv. Additionally, except PAv, ER, and AM, all other variables were positively associated with persistence. Multiple regression analyses further yielded that, for persistence, IR, MAp, and IM were significant positive predictors (all ps<.001). For IM, MAp (p<.001) and PAp (p<.05) emerged as positive predictors. For IR, MAp (p<.001) was the only positive predictor. For AM, PAv was the only positive predictor (p<.001). Interestingly, no variables emerged as predictors for ER. These findings indicate that both achievement goals and self-determined motivation had impact on students' persistence, supporting the integration of the two perspectives. It was also found that MAp goals not only had positive impact on students' persistence but also were related to higher levels of self-determined motivation (i.e., IM, IR), suggesting that promoting MAp goals can be effective in increasing student motivation and engagement in college physical activity classes. Therefore, instructors should emphasize task mastery, personal improvement and learning in their classes, all of which lead to the development of MAp goals. Keyword(s): college level issues, physical activity, student issues