Explanatory Model Based on the Type of Physical Activity, Motivational Climate and Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet of Anxiety among Physical Education Trainee Teachers

Abstract

It has now been shown that an active and healthy lifestyle among university students helps to channel disruptive states arising from the academic environment. The objectives of this research are to describe the levels of anxiety, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and motivational climate as a function of the type of physical activity, and to establish the relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean diet, motivational climate, and anxiety in university students. This objective is broken down into: (a) developing an explanatory model of the motivational climate towards sport and adherence to the Mediterranean diet on anxiety, and (b) contrasting the structural model by means of a multi-group analysis as a function of the type of physical activity. A descriptive, comparative, cross-sectional, and non-experimental study was proposed in a sample of 569 trainee teachers (M = 25.09; SD = 6.22). A sociodemographic questionnaire, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire (PMCSQ-2), the PREDIMED Questionnaire, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-SF) were used for data collection. The data show that subjects with higher weekly physical activity time show lower levels of anxiety, better adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and demonstrate task-oriented sport motivation.