Motivators and barriers to exercise in college students compared to faculty and staff

<b>Objective</b>: Compare the barriers and motivators to exercise in faculty/staff compared to students. <b>Participants</b>: Students and faculty/staff who were enrolled or employed at a college in Pennsylvania were emailed a link to a 91-question online Qualtrics^® survey. <b>Methods</b>: The survey collected demographic information as well as physical activity habits and included the Barriers to Being Active Questionnaire, Motivations for Physical Activities Measure, and Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire. <b>Results</b>: Faculty/staff (<i>n</i> = 69) were older and had a higher BMI than students (<i>n</i> = 97) (both <i>p</i> < 0.001). There were no differences in physical activity habits between groups. Faculty/staff reported social influences being a significantly (<i>p</i> = 0.02) greater barrier to physical activity than students. Students reported appearance (<i>p</i> = 0.002) and competence (<i>p</i> = 0.02) to be significantly higher motivators compared to faculty/staff. Both groups reported moderate self-determined motivation. <b>Conclusion</b>: Appropriate strategies can be employed by identifying the motivators and barriers to physical activity in students and faculty/staff.