It's up to you: The Influence of Sports Participation, Academic Performances and Demo-Behavioral Characteristics on University students' Life Satisfaction

Abstract

This paper investigates university students' life satisfaction by measuring six life satisfaction components (family life satisfaction, social life satisfaction, satisfaction with the university experience, satisfaction with oneself, satisfaction with the place of residence, satisfaction with the overall life) among different students' groups. Life satisfaction is measured using Brief Multi-Dimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS). A cross-sectional approach was taken to examine differences among identified students' groups according to: academic performance (by GPA and status of funding), demographic and behavioral characteristics (by gender, body mass index, smoking and alcohol consumption) and features related to physical activity (by weekly time spent in physical activity in hours and group of sport engaged in). Research is conducted among 507 students at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Man Whitney and Kruskal Wallis test were performed for pairwise comparison using Bonferroni correction. The results show statistically significant differences in the following components: satisfaction with family life (within gender group), satisfaction with social life (within sex and smoking groups), satisfaction with the university experience (within sex, smoking, alcohol consumption, GPA and scholarship/funding status groups), satisfaction with oneself (within GPA, financial status, alcohol consumption and type of sport groups), satisfaction with the place of residence (within GPA, scholarship/funding status, time spent in physical activities and body mass index) and satisfaction with the overall life (within gender and alcohol consumption groups). This paper has both theoretical and practical influence on contemporary life satisfaction field of knowledge, particularly in university students' population.