Relationships between Attitude Toward Physical Education and Physical Activity Levels in Chinese Middle School Students

Objectives The purposes of this study were to investigate the attitudes toward physical education and physical activity levels of middle school students in Jiangxi Province, China, and explore the relationship between these two factors. Methods The subjects consisted of 722 middle school students (male: 371 and female: 351) from 7th to 9th grade at four public middle schools in Jiangxi Province, China. The measurement tools were used the Chinese version of Students' Attitude Toward Physical Education (Hu et al., 2014) and the Chinese version of Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (Li, 2015). For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), descriptive statistics, univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were performed, using SPSS 26 and AMOS 27 statistical program. Results The results showed that first, participants' attitudes toward physical education were generally positive across all grades and genders, with average scores above 3.0 for all sub-factors. According to the result of MANOVA, gender had a significant impact on all dependent variables CE: F(1, 716)=21.795, p<.05; CU: F(1, 716)=14.818, p<.05; TE: F(1, 716)=18.150, p<.05; TU: F(1, 716)=8.130, p<.05; however, grade did not significantly affect attitudes. Second, physical activity levels varied by gender and grade, with males generally exhibiting higher (2.34) scores than females (1.88). According to a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), both gender F(1, 716)=80.342, p＜.05 and grade F(2, 716)=24.351, p＜.05) had significant effects on physical activity scores, while the interaction effect between grade and gender was not significant [F(2, 716)=1.659, p＞.05. Third, correlation analysis revealed slightly positive relationships between physical activity and the four sub-scales of attitude CE (r=.290, p<.05); CU (r=.299, p<.05); TE (r=.326, p<.05); TU (r=.283, p<.05). Conclusions The results of this study are expected to enhance the understanding of middle school students by schools and physical education teachers for the development of physical education in China, and to contribute to the development of future physical education programs by providing theoretical evidence.