Barriers for practicing physical exercise in Mexican university students: gender comparisons

The aim of this research was to compare the profiles of barriers for practicing physical exercise in Mexican university students. The total sample was composed by 897 subjects. 490 female and 407 male university students from Chihuahua, Mexico, with a mean age of 18 and 36 years old. The research is framed within a quantitative approach with a survey descriptive design. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to examine the differences between university men and women regarding the perception of barriers for practicing physical exercise. Results from the MANOVA showed statistically significant global differences according to gender in the average factor scores of the Self-Report of Bafflers for Practicing Physical Exercise (WilLs' (sic) = .884; p <.001). Subsequently, the results of the ANOVAs showed that women report a greater presence of barriers in the four dimensions studied; physical and social anxiety (F = 40.281, p <.001), fatigue or laziness (F = 94.004, p <.001), obligations and lack of time (F = 66.774, p .001) and facilities (F = 20.925 , p <.01). The encountered differences seem to indicate that women have greater probability of perceiving bafflers for the practice of physical exercise, making it more difficult for them to practice physical activity than for men.