Multilevel support for continued physical activity in university volleyball courses: a qualitative study

Whether university physical education courses can support continued participation during the course and initial efforts to remain active beyond it depends on how interpersonal support and organizational opportunities work together. This study examined multilevel support, participation motivation, and psychosocial well-being in university volleyball courses.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 students, four instructors, and two administrators from two comprehensive universities in South Korea. The data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Three themes were identified: (1) instructors strengthened students' confidence to participate by reducing bodily and evaluative threats; (2) peer companionship and shared responsibility for collaboration gave participation relational and value-based significance, although competence comparisons could also lead to withdrawal; and (3) participants linked continuation into extracurricular physical activity to assessment fairness, facility accessibility, campus sport norms, and available post-course pathways.

Participants described continued participation during the course and initial efforts to remain active afterward as more feasible when they felt able and willing to continue and had practical opportunities to do so. University physical education may therefore benefit from linking instructional support, peer interaction, and organizational resources with pathways for activity beyond the course.