{ "abstract": "Young adults are particularly at risk of dropping out of physical activity (PA). European policies have addressed this issue by promoting PA and encouraging better monitoring of PA through standardized and specific measures of its quantity. The current paper used an ecological approach that considers interrelated determinants at the individual, social, environmental, and policy levels to survey 2,165 undergraduate students (65.3% female) aged 18–25 years from 16 universities via an online questionnaire as part of the “How Young People in Europe Move” (HYPEM) project. A cluster analysis of mixed data was performed to identify profiles of sport and PA participation among undergraduates from 12 European countries and to examine their associations with individual and contextual characteristics. The results showed that individual and contextual characteristics were associated with spatial, temporal, social, intensity-related, and equipment-related dimensions of PA participation. Additionally, space, time and equipment were key variables for profiling students. Furthermore, the cluster analysis revealed three typologies of student sports and PA participation: ‘Autonomous’, ‘Networked Supervised’, and ‘Regularly Supervised’. These profiles suggest that undergraduate students engage in PA through various formats, ranging from flexible, self-organized practices to more structured, supervised forms of participation. Differences were also observed across participating institutions, indicating that contextual factors should be considered when interpreting these exploratory profiles. These profiles may help generate hypotheses about how university PA opportunities could be designed and evaluated in future prospective and intervention studies.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Univ. Lille, Univ. Artois, Univ. Littoral Côte d’Opale, ULR 7369 – URePSSS – Unité de Recherche Pluridisciplinaire Sport Santé Société, Lille, France", "Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada", "University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark", "TREE UMR 6031, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour – CEMS/EHESS, Paris, France", "University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy", "Department of Sport Sciences, Exercise and Health, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal", "Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9193 – SCALab – Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Lille, France", "Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, E2S UPPA, MEPS, Anglet, France", "Univ. Littoral Côte d’Opale, Univ. Artois, Univ. Lille, ULR 7369 – URePSSS – Unité de Recherche Pluridisciplinaire Sport Santé Société, Dunkerque, France", "Université Côte d’Azur, Laboratoire Motricité Humaine Expertise Sport Santé (LAMHESS), Nice, France", "CIFI2D and LABIOMEP, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal", "College of Physical Education and Sport PALESTRA, Prague, Czechia", "Faculty of Health, Sport and Society, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland", "Haute école pédagogique du canton de Vaud, Lausanne, Switzerland", "University of Kent, London and South East University Group, Canterbury, England", "Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy", "University of Osnabrück, Jahnstr. 75, 49080 Osnabrück, Germany", "University of Liège, RUCHE – Research Unit for a life-Course perspective on Health & Education, Liège, Belgium", "Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland", "University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain", "Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway", "University of Health and Sport Sciences, Wrocław, Poland", "German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany" ], "article_type": "Research Article", "arxiv": null, "author_total": 34, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Clément Llena", "orcid": "0000-0002-9571-617X" }, { "affs": [ 0, 1 ], "name": "Louise Fermon", "orcid": "0009-0003-5110-9823" }, { "affs": [ 2 ], "name": "Søren Andkjær", "orcid": "0000-0002-9783-1032" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Audran Aulanier" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Félix Berrigan" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "Nico Bortoletto" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Mário Jorge Costa", "orcid": "0000-0001-5502-1202" }, { "affs": [ 6 ], "name": "Yvonne Delevoye-Turrell" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Thibaut Derigny", "orcid": "0000-0002-4028-8235" }, { "affs": [ 8 ], "name": "Olivier Dieu" }, { "affs": [ 6 ], "name": "Murielle Garcin" }, { "affs": [ 9 ], "name": "Joseph Gandrieau" }, { "affs": [ 10 ], "name": "Ricardo Jorge Fernandes", "orcid": "0000-0002-5811-0443" }, { "affs": [ 11 ], "name": "Libor Flemr" }, { "affs": [ 12 ], "name": "Christopher Fullerton" }, { "affs": [ 12 ], "name": "Hee Jung Hong" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Aurore Huchez", "orcid": "0000-0002-6283-2844" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Isabelle Joing" }, { "affs": [ 13 ], "name": "Vanessa Lentillon-Kaestner", "orcid": "0000-0003-2646-4383" }, { "affs": [ 14 ], "name": "Alexis Mauger" }, { "affs": [ 15 ], "name": "Barbara Mazza" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Léa Mekkaoui", "orcid": "0000-0002-3483-7840" }, { "affs": [ 16 ], "name": "Enrico Michelini" }, { "affs": [ 2 ], "name": "Annette Michelsen la Cour" }, { "affs": [ 17 ], "name": "Alexandre Mouton" }, { "affs": [ 18 ], "name": "Przemysław Nosal" }, { "affs": [ 19 ], "name": "Pedro R. Olivares", "orcid": "0000-0001-7371-343X" }, { "affs": [ 20 ], "name": "Bjørn Harald Olstad" }, { "affs": [ 21 ], "name": "Marek Rejman", "orcid": "0000-0003-3857-6999" }, { "affs": [ 10 ], "name": "Susana Soares", "orcid": "0000-0002-8313-8181" }, { "affs": [ 10 ], "name": "João Paulo Vilas-Boas", "orcid": "0000-0002-4109-2939" }, { "affs": [ 22 ], "name": "Tobias Vogt" }, { "affs": [ 8 ], "name": "Alessandro Porrovecchio" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "François Potdevin", "orcid": "0000-0002-6060-1698" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8x7wb8v4zn9ex.bib", "cited_by": 0, "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0360751", "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13734477/", "id": "8x7wb8v4zn9ex", "issns": [ "1932-6203" ], "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360751", "language": "en", "licence": "CC-BY-4.0", "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0", "licence_source": "article", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "heading", "Adults" ], [ "heading", "Age Groups" ], [ "heading", "Behavior" ], [ "heading", "Biology and Life Sciences" ], [ "heading", "Educational Status" ], [ "heading", "Engineering and Technology" ], [ "heading", "Equipment" ], [ "heading", "Europe" ], [ "heading", "Geographical Locations" ], [ "heading", "Medicine and Health Sciences" ], [ "heading", "People and Places" ], [ "heading", "Physical Activity" ], [ "heading", "Population Groupings" ], [ "heading", "Psychology" ], [ "heading", "Public and Occupational Health" ], [ "heading", "Questionnaires" ], [ "heading", "Recreation" ], [ "heading", "Research Article" ], [ "heading", "Research Design" ], [ "heading", "Research and Analysis Methods" ], [ "heading", "Sedentary Behavior" ], [ "heading", "Social Sciences" ], [ "heading", "Sports" ], [ "heading", "Sports Science" ], [ "heading", "Survey Research" ], [ "heading", "Undergraduates" ], [ "heading", "Young Adults" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Recreation/Sports" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Sedentary behavior" ], [ "plos", "/Biology and life sciences/Sports science/Sports" ], [ "plos", "/Engineering and technology/Equipment" ], [ "plos", "/Medicine and health sciences/Public and occupational health/Physical activity" ], [ "plos", "/People and places/Geographical locations/Europe" ], [ "plos", "/People and places/Population groupings/Age groups/Adults/Young adults" ], [ "plos", "/People and places/Population groupings/Educational status/Undergraduates" ], [ "plos", "/Research and analysis methods/Research design/Survey research/Questionnaires" ], [ "plos", "/Social sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Recreation/Sports" ], [ "plos", "/Social sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Sedentary behavior" ] ], "openalex": null, "pdf_url": null, "pmcid": "PMC13734477", "pmid": "42981275", "published": "2026-11-04", "publisher": "Public Library of Science", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8x7wb8v4zn9ex.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-11-05T12:20:11Z", "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0360751", "source": "plos", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360751" }, { "first_seen": "2026-11-08T12:23:59Z", "native_id": "PMC13734477", "source": "pmc", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360751" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "biology", "origin": "heading:Biology and Life Sciences", "subfield": "general" }, { "field": "medicine", "origin": "plos:public and occupational health", "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health" } ], "title": "Where, when, how, and with whom do young university students engage in physical activity? A cluster-derived spectrum of patterns across 16 European universities", "title_text": "Where, when, how, and with whom do young university students engage in physical activity? A cluster-derived spectrum of patterns across 16 European universities", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-11-08T12:23:59Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8x7wb8v4zn9ex", "venue": "PLOS One", "versions": [] }