Behavioural determinants of university freshmen students' sport behaviour

The goal of this study was to obtain insight in the sport behaviour of freshmen BSc students and the related behavioural determinants, for the following three domains: 1) general sport behaviour, 2) sport behaviour change in transition from secondary school to university, and 3) sport behaviour at the University Sports Centre (SCB). To reach this goal, an explanatory model was constructed to explain variance in sport behaviour, based on empirical and theoretical findings. Besides demographic variables, the following behavioural determinants were included in the model: attitudinal beliefs, attitudes, social influences, self-efficacy, intention, self-regulation, habit and barriers. An online questionnaire was developed, with questions on determinants and sport behaviour separately for all three domains. The questionnaire results were explored to see if the explanatory model was appropriate for predicting the three domains of freshmen student sport behaviour. It can be concluded that the explanatory model was a good attempt at predicting freshmen student sport behaviour in general and in transition from secondary school to university (explaining over half of the variance in behaviour), even though in the latter domain experimental question formulations and a cross-sectional design were used. Sport habits seem to be a very important determinant for freshmen students’ sports practice. Furthermore, if students have strong selfregulatory skills during adolescence, they might be better able to practice sports, even if they go through a transition.