Problem

The physical health of a person seems to be an important issue in today's society. It would seem reasonable to hypothesize that the temperament of an individual may be a predisposing factor toward or against participation on a regular exercise program. It was the purpose of this study to determine what relationship exists between a person's temperament type and the amount of leisure time physical activity he or she performs.

Method

One-hundred and ninety-three college students participated in this study. The "Temperament Inventory" was used to determine a person's score on each of the four temperament types. The "Minnesota Leisure Time Activity Questionnaire" was used to determine a person's AMI (Activity Metabolic Index) score. Stepwise multiple regression was used to analyze the influence of the sex of an individual and the four temperament types on the AMI score.

Results

Statistically significant results were found for sex and for the sanguine temperament, at the .01 level. Sex accounted for approximately 4.5 percent of the variance, and sanguine accounted for a little over 1 percent of the variance; together they explained approximately 6 percent of the variance.

Conclusions

The sex of an individual and the sanguine temperament were found to have a significant relationship to leisure-time physical activity, as measured by the Minnesota Leisure Time Activity Questionnaire. However while these were found to be statistically significant in this study, it is of little practical value in explaining the variance of the AMI scores.