What past sports experiences are necessary to establish lifelong exercise habits?:Past sports experiences before adulthood for establishing lifelong exercise habits

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine factors related in past sports experiences before adulthood for developing exercise habits during adulthood. The participants were eighty adults aged 447924 men67.66.2 yr, 51 women59.28.2 yr, and 5 unknown69.74.5 yr. All participants belonged to a community club with sports and culture classes. Survey items included past sports experiences, current exercise habits, and enjoyment of exercise. Influences of past sports experiences to current exercise habits were examined using a multiple indicator model in structural equation modeling. Results for a causal structure model of past sports experiences and current exercise habits indicated a good fit to the data CFI0.998, RMSEA0.030. The path coefficient was 0.34standardized solutionpast sports experi-encescurrent exercise habits. However the path coefficient of past sports experiencescurrent exercise habits in the model which added enjoyment of exercise indicated a low value0.08, ns. Meanwhile , the path coefficient of past sports experiencesenjoyment of exercise and enjoyment of exercise current exercise habits were 0.56 and 0.62, respectively. In addition, there was a no significant difference in physical activity level between numbers of sports experiences. These findings suggest that past sports experiences before adulthood had directly a stronger effect on enjoyment of exercise than on exercise habit, and that enjoyment of exercise had directly a strong effect on exercise habit. Key wordsphysical activity, causal relationship, structural equation modeling, enjoyment of exercise 20094119 41