Background/Objective
The literature has discussed the potential for nurturing, integrating, and optimizing physical literacy to thereby enhance quality of life, but data supporting such an argument remain limited. This cross-sectional study attempted to empirically investigate these two variables by assessing physical education satisfaction and motivation among Taiwan’s university students.
Methods
By applying the time segregation method, participants were asked to complete a set of questionnaires twice in the first semester of the 2021–2022 academic year. SmartPLS version 3.3 was used to conduct the data analysis. After ratifying the model’s goodness-of-fit, partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses in the research model.
Results
A total of 388 students (male n = 320, female n = 68; mean age: 18.5 years) participated in this study. Moderate explanatory power was found in the relationships of perceived physical literacy to physical education satisfaction (R2 = 0.642) and motivation (R2 = 0.607). Results further indicated that motivation is the mediator of the relationship between physical literacy and physical education satisfaction (direct effect = 0.37, p < 0.001). Furthermore, this satisfaction mediated the relationship between physical literacy and quality of life (direct effect = 0.592, p < 0.001).
Conclusion
This study connected theoretical knowledge regarding physical literacy with practice, suggesting that ongoing physical education may nurture the habit of lifelong participation in physical activity, thus further improving quality of life.
