| Unmarried undergraduate students (N = 548) completed a questionnaire which included assessments of their levels of psychosocial development, perceived well-being, and frequency of participation in self-directed exercise and sport. With respect to the relationship between sport and exercise, the data revealed that frequent involvement in one activity did not necessarily indicate frequent involvement in the other (r = .38). To investigate the degree to which exercise versus sport participation predicted the respondents' levels of psychosocial development and perceived well-being, multiple regression and a static group comparison design were then employed. In the case of psychosocial development, both exercise and sport involvement were found to be unrelated to identity development, but sport was significantly and positively related to readiness for intimacy among the males. Across multiple dependent variables a consistent pattern emerged in which perceived well-being was positively related to sport involvement, but unrelated and, in some cases, negatively related to self-directed exercise. Frequent sport participation was predictive of satisfaction with self, social relationships, leisure activities, and life as-a-whole, while frequent exercise was related to dissatisfaction with self, social relationships, and frequent episodes of depression. Since there is no previous research linking exercise involvement with decreased satisfaction or increased levels of depression, it was concluded that these results suggest a pattern of self-regulation in the face of adversity. It seems reasonable to believe that these students had positive beliefs about the efficacy of exercise which led them to attempt to employ it as a means of addressing perceived personal limitations. |
