Longitudinal changes in Chinese minority college students' health-related fitness: A multilevel latent growth curve modeling approach

Xin Zhang; Xiaofen D Hamilton; Zach Taylor; Jianmin Guan; Michael Hodges; Shuhua Qu; Yong Huang

doi:10.1080/07448481.2022.2066955

Longitudinal changes in Chinese minority college students' health-related fitness: A multilevel latent growth curve modeling approach

J Am Coll Health. 2022 May 27:1-9. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2022.2066955. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xin Zhang¹, Xiaofen D Hamilton², Zach Taylor³, Jianmin Guan⁴, Michael Hodges⁵, Shuhua Qu⁶, Yong Huang⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China.
² Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
³ Department of Educational Research, College of Educational and Human Services, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA.
⁴ Department of Kinesiology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
⁵ Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, Bronx Community College, Bronx, New York, USA.
⁶ College of Athletics, Beijing Sport University, Beijing, China.
⁷ Department of Physical Education, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China.

PMID: 35622974
DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2022.2066955

Abstract

The study aimed to test the overall changes of health-related fitness (HRF) in minority Chinese college students and to examine HRF differences in gender, race, and year in college. Method: Participants (n = 1320) were minority college students with more than two-thirds females (ie 76.1%), and Hui, Tibetan, and Mongolia consisted of 13.8%, 13.8%, and 11.2%, respectively. Student HRF was tracked for four years. Data were analyzed using multilevel latent growth curve modeling. Results: Muscular strength and endurance were the weakest component in minority college students' HRF, while body mass index was within the category of "excellent". Males outperformed female on all components of HRF. Conclusions: It is suggested that interventions concerning minority females' HRF and muscular strength and endurance for both genders be constructed and tested.

Keywords: Health-related fitness; minority Chinese college students; tracking changes.