Predicting the intention to practice physical activity among high school female students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to predict the intention to perform physical activity (PA) of high school female students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and to investigate the degree to which the elements of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) mediate in the intention to participate in PA. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a predesigned questionnaire applying TPB; this study was conducted for the duration of 3 months. The sample size was calculated to be 574 participants from randomly selected girl's high schools in Riyadh. Results: It was found that 59.06% of the students had a positive intention toward practicing PA. It also revealed that regression weight on intention to practice PA of perceived behavioral control had (β = 0.301, P < 0.000), attitude (β = 0.270, P < 0.000), and subjective norms (β = 0.183 P < 0.000). Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that all TPB variables are useful tools and statistically significant with the intention to practice PA for prediction of the intention to practice PA among students. Further, perceived behavioral control had the strongest regression weight on the intention to practice PA.