Procrastinating Exercise or Staying in the Flow? The Relationship Between Psychological Flow and Exercise Procrastination in Sports Science Students

Year 2025, Volume: 7 Issue: 3, 557 - 566, 30.09.2025

Emrah Seçer , Hasan Kuleli

https://doi.org/10.56639/jsar.1752575

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between psychological flow experiences and exer-cise procrastination among university students majoring in sports science. Using a quan-titative research design and survey model, data were collected from 279 students (163 males and 116 females), as determined via G*Power analysis. The Psychological Flow Scale and Exercise Procrastination Scale were employed, and data were analyzed using SPSS 25. Statistical methods included normality tests, descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANO-VA/Welch tests, Pearson correlation, and simple linear regression analyses. Findings showed that male students reported significantly higher scores in all dimensions of psy-chological flow compared to females, while females demonstrated higher levels of exercise procrastination. Additionally, students from low-income backgrounds scored higher in the self-transcendence and effortless control subdimensions of psychological flow. A sta-tistically significant negative correlation was found between psychological flow and exer-cise procrastination, indicating that higher levels of flow are associated with reduced pro-crastination. Regression analysis revealed that psychological flow accounted for approx-imately 7% of the variance in exercise procrastination. These results suggest that psycho-logical flow plays a protective role against exercise procrastination, and this effect varies by gender and income level. Enhancing flow experiences may be a beneficial strategy for promoting regular exercise behavior among sports science students, particularly males and those from low-income backgrounds.

Keywords

Psychological Flow , Exercise Procrastination , Sports Science Students

Ethical Statement

The research data was collected in accordance with the official approval (Protocol No: 06/13) granted by the Health and Sports Sciences Ethics Committee of Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University on June 27, 2025. Informed consent was obtained from the participants, indicating that they voluntarily participated in the research and consented to the use of their data for scientific pur-poses. Participants were clearly informed that they had the right to withdraw from the study at any time during the research process. All processes implemented throughout the research were conducted in full compliance with the ethical principles estab-lished in the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its subsequent updates. Data were obtained through face-to-face interviews with volunteer students enrolled in sports science faculties at various universities and through written consent forms.

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