The College of Nursing at the University of Baghdad discussed a doctoral dissertation titled (The Relationship Between Exercise Motivation and Readiness to Engage in Regular Physical Exercise Among University Students: The Serial Mediating Roles of Exercise Identity, Commitment to Physical Exercise, and Identity), by researcher Ahmed Abbas Darjal, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Wissam Jabbar Qasim, in the college’s main auditorium.
The study primarily aimed to identify students’ readiness to engage in regular physical exercise and to determine whether exercise motivation, exercise identity, expected outcomes, age, socioeconomic status, and body mass index could predict this willingness, as well as to analyze the direct and indirect effects of exercise identity and adherence in mediating this relationship.
The study concluded that the better the family’s socioeconomic status and the higher the body mass index, the greater the students’ willingness to engage in regular physical exercise. The thesis offered key recommendations emphasizing the need for community health nurses to collaborate with officials at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to improve families’ socioeconomic status and thereby enhance their willingness to exercise, in addition to guiding researchers toward conducting future studies aimed at increasing exercise motivation and fostering an exercise identity, given their direct impact on improving fitness and public health. The researcher’s efforts were recognized with a distinction.
This study reflects the College of Nursing’s commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 3 on good health and well-being, as encouraging participation in regular physical exercise and understanding the motivations behind it contributes to building a healthy and sustainable youth-oriented society, reduces the burden of disease, and ensures comprehensive awareness of
and its growth, in line with global visions for the development of societies through integrated and sustainable preventive and curative healthcare for future generations.
