Establishing Levels of Perceived Benefits and Barriers from Exercising By Female Students at University of “Ss. Cyril & Methodius” – Skopje

Many individuals are not engaged in sufficient physical activity due to low perceived benefits and high perceived barriers to exercise. Given the increasing incidence of obesity and obesity-related health disorders, this topic requires further exploration. The research goal was to establish what factors, according to students' perceptions, appear as the greatest benefits from and heaviest barriers for exercising, as well as establish the correlation between these per- ceived benefits and barriers, and the level of physical activity. Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale was used to assess per- ceived benefits and barrier intensities to exercise in 514 female university students (mean age 19.3 years, SD=1.06), taken from several faculties at the University of “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje. The research results show that the female respondents who study at the university perceive much more benefits than barriers to exercising. The calcu- lated relation of benefits/barriers with this sample presents 1.39. The observed highest benefit that the female re- spondents have perceived is the “psychological benefit”, followed by the advantage related to the improved physical performance, improvement of life quality, social interaction, and health prevention. Physical tension and lack of time were graded considerably higher against the other two subscales of assessing the perceived barriers to exercising. The respondents with high physical activity have significantly higher results in the scales and subscales of assessing the perceived benefits and lower results in the scales and subscales of assessing the perceived barriers to exercising than those with a moderate and low level of physical activity. The implications of the research in elaborating the strategies and educative programs for promoting physical activity show the importance of increasing the relation benefits/barriers with the female respondents. The applied interventions should help female students to overcome the feelings of discomfort of physical tension during exercising (reducing the perceived barriers) and to emphasize health and other benefits of regular exercising (increasing the expected benefits).