About Women Emerging from Patriarchy: Expectancies of Benefits and Engagement in Physical Education

Abstract

Insufficient physical activity is associated with poor physical and mental health. In this research area, Saudi Arabian female undergraduate students are an understudied population. While they are emerging from a strict patriarchal order, physical education is not only beneficial to their health but also a socio-cultural marker of their progress toward gender equity. Thus, the present study focused on how physical activity is viewed by first-year female students (n =290) enrolled in a physical education course. Through a survey methodology, the study gathered information about students’ views of the impact of physical activity on cognition and affect (i.e., benefit expectancies). Then, it examined, through regression analyses, whether such views could predict students’ course engagement as well as their physical activity levels. In this study, beliefs in the impact of physical activity on both cognition and affect were found to be linked to increased self-reported physical activity. Course engagement increased with students’ beliefs in the impact of physical activity on cognition. Need for relatedness yielded null results in both analyses. Notwithstanding the expectation of benefits, most students did not report engaging in daily physical activity outside the physical education course. These findings suggest that the hectic academic lives of undergraduate students may obscure the impact of physical exercise on quotidian functioning. Targeted opportunities to be active both inside and outside university campuses may reverse current patterns and be beneficial to students’ well-being.