The relationship between physical education and leisure-time physical activity behavior

Due to limitations in instruction hours and resources, it has become increasingly difficult for physical education to simultaneously provide knowledge, skills and sufficient physical activity needed for healthful living. Consequently, leisure-time physical activity participation becomes a significant opportunity to supplement physical education for students to be physically active. Ennis (2010) pointed out that health-related fitness knowledge, motor skills and physical activity demonstrated in physical education have become critical in developing students’ healthful living behavior. Guided by the transfer theory, the purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which college students’ knowledge and skills demonstrated in physical education are associated with leisure-time physical activity behavior. A total of 186 student participants (99 males, 87 females) in basketball, volleyball, and soccer classes at one of the University of North Carolina completed fitness knowledge tests, in-class physical activity measures, sports skills tests, and a leisure-time physical activity recall survey. Pearson correlation, multiple regression analysis, and canonical correlation analyses were used to examine association at variable-to-variable (bivariate) and variable set-to-set levels. The major findings include (a) There was no relationship between health-related fitness knowledge and leisure-time physical activity behavior at the variable to variable level. (b) In-class physical activity and sport skills demonstrated in physical education had a weak correlation with leisure-time physical activity behavior. (c) There was a variable set-to-set correlation between skill and leisure time sport-specific physical activity participation in soccer. These findings support the assumption of transfer theory that behavior transfer is unlikely to rely on the variable to variable associations. It is more likely to take place in a holistic way, where individual factors in one environment (e.g., physical education) work together as a set to interact with a set of factors in a different environment (e.g., leisure-time physical activity settings). The findings imply a holistic approach to be used in further research to examine the relationship between physical education and leisure-time physical activity.