Making the transition into adulthood – how are university students experiencing the physical literacy journey (The PLJUS collaboration)?

Abstract

This symposium will report on a current inter-university collaboration, exploring how University students experience their physical literacy journey. With approximately one third of 18 year olds in the UK now choosing to enter university this sample of young people is becoming increasingly representative of the entire cohort of young people who have passed though the school system. As graduates of the system, they are representative of the levels of physical literacy achieved after up to twelve years of exposure to physical education and sport as part of their foundation educational experience. How well have the knowledge, attitudes and competence developed in that critical period of the lifespan prepared them for moving forward committed to participating in a wide variety of physical activities in multiple environments that benefit the healthy development of the whole person? Also, how do the environments offered by universities today, serve to either support or hinder their adoption of health-supporting physical activity behaviours as they transition into the new world of adulthood?

This symposium will report the initial results from an ongoing collaboration between four universities – three in the UK and one in Australia - which seeks to cast light on the above questions. Taking a person in the environment interaction approach, the project expects to have involved approximately 2,000 health science students in the first year of their studies at the Universities of Chester, South Wales, and Wales Trinity Saint David, and at the Brisbane and Melbourne campuses of the Australian Catholic University. Personal (psycho-social) and environmental variables associated with regular physical activity involvement are being measured and analysed in relation to self-reported measure of physical activity behaviour. The collaboration stresses the potential of comparative study in discriminating between issues of general significance and those where local and immediate factors are having a significant impact.