Lifestyles of University Students and Their Sports Activity Performances

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relation between the lifestyles of university students and their sports activity preferences. The survey was made by sending out questionnaires to 1, 000 university students, and the following results were obtained.
1) Factor analysis was applied to 71 items to classify sports activities according to the similarities in preferences. As a result of this analysis, 13 sports activity preference factors were extracted: marine sports, dancing, grappling-type ball games, sky sports, racket sports, outdoor sports, target sports, power competing sports, martial arts, track and field, baseball/softball, endurance sports, and swimming.
2) To grasp the structure of the lifestyles of the university students, factor analysis was applied to 41 AIO items, and as a result, 10 life-style factors were extracted: fashion-oriented, achievement-oriented, sports-oriented, volunteer-oriented, individuality-oriented, leader-oriented, brand-oriented, success-in-life-oriented, harmony-oriented, and nature-oriented.
3) By means of a cluster analysis of nine factors of lifestyle-excepting the sports-oriented factor-students were classified into six lifestyle groups, i. e., the type valuing fashion, the type with no purposel in life, the type valuing harmony, the anti-brand-type, the type actively living life, the type valuing success in life.
4) Through this investigation of the preferences in sports activities of these six lifestyle groups, it turned out that there is a definite relation between the types of life-styles and the preferences in sports activities was recognized. Furthermore, it was clarified that the activity preference patterns were inversely related among the groups that indicated opposing life styles.