Defined as self-generated thoughts, feelings, and behaviors oriented to attaining goals (Zimmerman, 2000), self-regulated learning (SRL) is critical to student performance and achievement in academic settings. Ryan and Deci (2000) identify four SRL behaviors: External—performed to satisfy an external demand or reward; Introjected—performed to avoid guilt, anxiety, or for pride; Identified—accepting the value of an activity as personally important and, Intrinsic—doing an activity for its inherent satisfaction. While examined in classroom settings, few studies have examined students' SRL in college physical activity classes. One important goal of college physical activity programs is to help students stay healthy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine relationships between college students' SRL in physical activity classes and their self-reported health.
Method
Participants included 323 students (136 males; M age = 19.94 years, SD = 1.68; 70.6% Caucasian) enrolled in physical activity classes at a southern university. During their regularly scheduled physical activity class, participants completed two questionnaires assessing SRL on a 7-point scale, ranging from 1 (not at all true of me) to 7 (very true of me) and their present health status on a 5-point scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent).
Analysis/Results
Descriptive statistics revealed students reported the highest value on intrinsic motivation(M = 5.40, SD = 1.09), followed by identified regulation (M = 5.31, SD = 1.16), introjected regulation (M = 3.74, SD = 1.40), and external regulation (M = 2.27, SD = 1.10). These results suggest the students in this study regulated their learning in physical activity classes more intrinsically than extrinsically. Additionally, students reported that their health was good (M = 4.07, SD = .74). The multiple regression analysis revealed only intrinsic motivation emerged as the significantly positive predictor of student self-reported health (β = .32, t = 6.08, p <.01) and explained 10.3% of the variance.
Conclusions
That intrinsic motivation was predictive of students' self-reported heath in this study suggests students who were motivated by the enjoyment of physical activities were more likely to consider themselves healthy than students who lacked such motivation. This finding supports the view that intrinsic motivation is essential to educational outcomes (e.g., persistence and performance). We recommend that instructors make learning activities fun and interesting in physical activity classes to enhance students' intrinsic motivation, which in turn may lead to their improved health.