HEALTHY BEHAVIOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the healthy behaviors in undergraduate students of physical education (PE) with a comparison between gender and majors. A content analysis of Polish and foreign authors’ publications was performed by searching the following database: EBSCO, Proquest, Science Direct (Elsevier), Springer, Sage, and Wiley. Research indicates that undergraduates demonstrate, in general, low levels of healthy lifestyle behaviors, especially regarding diet, psychoactive substance use, coping with stress, physical activity and preventive behavior. PE students present with a high level of health-risk behavior. On the other hand, some research showed that PE students scored better than their peers of other areas of study in selected dimensions of health-related behavior. The majority of studies indicate that female students scored significantly better than male students in health-related behavior. Health promotion programs should be implemented at campuses and universities for the maintenance and improvement of a healthy lifestyle among students of all areas of study.

Keywords

• health-related behavior
• health risk behavior
• gender
• physical education
• undergraduates