Date of Award

Summer 2018

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Research and Administration

Committee Chair

Lilian Hill

Committee Chair Department

Educational Research and Administration

Committee Member 2

Steven Chesnut

Committee Member 2 Department

Educational Research and Administration

Committee Member 3

David Dolbow

Committee Member 3 Department

Kinesiology

Committee Member 4

Eric Platt

Committee Member 4 Department

Educational Research and Administration

Abstract

Healthy Campus 2020, an initiative that provides a framework to support campuses in improving the health of their students, staff, and faculty, recognizes physical activity as one of the top eleven priorities for positively influencing health risk behaviors in college populations (American College Health Association, 2012). However, there is not much research to support the best way to influence physical activity behaviors and what types of programs and facilities can provide the greatest impact. The purpose of this study was to investigate which components or programs within the higher education environment have the greatest influence on college students’ intention to engage in physical activity.

To investigate which component offers the greatest influence, a joint effort between the Astin’s Input-Environment-Output Model and Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior was used to better understand how the educational environment influences the perceived value of physical activity in college students. The use of structural equation modeling allowed for the opportunity to assess the relationships among multiple variables and see what, if any, relationship exists (Hoyle, 2012). The model revealed that campus safety was the only influencer of all four known predictors of intention, attitude, perceived control, subjective norm, and self-efficacy toward physical activity while the accessibility of a wellness or fitness facility did not have a relationship with the intention to participate in physical activity. By increasing efforts toward those that offer greater influence, HE may want to decrease funding and efforts towards those initiatives that offer little or no value toward increasing physical activity behaviors.

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