The Relationship between the Motivation for Physical Activity and Life Skills among Chinese and Japanese College Students

Abstract

Participation in physical activity is beneficial for health and motivation is an important theme in sport psychology. The purpose of this study was to examine the difference of the relationship between the motivation for physical activity and daily life skills among Chinese and Japanese college students. A questionnaire survey was conducted for 1039 college students (Chinese, n = 526; Japanese, n = 513). Japanese and Chinese version of Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale (PALMS, 1, 2) and a Daily Life Skills Scale for College Students (DLS, 3, 4) were completed by the participants. The PALMS includes eight sub scales which are Mastery, Physical Condition, Affiliation, Psychological Condition, Appearance, Others’ Expectations, Enjoyment and Competition/Ego. DLS includes 8 sub-scales, which are classified into 2 general skills: skills used mainly in personal situations (planning, knowledge summarization, self-esteem, and positive thinking), and skills used generally in interpersonal situations (intimacy, leadership, empathy, and interpersonal manner). The Chinese version of “Daily Life-Skills Scale” created in this study was confirmed, Significant differences between Chinese and Japanese University students were observed. Chinese college students had a higher mean score for the intimacy factor, leadership factor, planning factors, knowledge summarization factor and self-esteem factor. While Japanese college students had a higher mean scores for the aspects of empathy and interpersonal manner. This study found different relationships between the motivation for physical activity and daily life skills among Chinese and Japanese college students. It might be due to cultural differences between those countries. Future research should be focusing on gender and cultural differences of both countries regarding to the motivation for leisure.