Behavioral and Psychosocial Profiles Associated with Physical Activity Among University Women: A Hierarchical Segmentation Analysis

Physical activity (PA) participation among university women is influenced by behavioural, psychosocial, and contextual factors. This study aimed to identify hierarchical profiles associated with PA participation using exploratory segmentation methods. A multicentre cross-sectional study was conducted with 417 university women from Chile, Spain, Italy, and Mexico (mean age = 22.2 ± 5.1 years). Participants completed validated questionnaires assessing habitual PA (IPAQ-SF), perceived barriers to PA (BBAQ-21), dietary quality (HEI), and health-related characteristics. Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Exhaustive Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) analyses were performed. Self-reported PA change since the pandemic emerged as the first-order segmentation variable within both exploratory models. Women reporting reduced PA since the pandemic had lower observed compliance with WHO recommendations (62.7%) than those reporting stable or increased PA (85.8%). Lack of energy (χ2 = 18.61, p < 0.001) and lack of willpower (χ2 = 28.63, p < 0.001) were the barriers most strongly associated with less favourable PA profiles. These findings support the value of segmentation-oriented approaches for understanding behavioural heterogeneity and informing gender-sensitive health-promotion initiatives in higher education settings. Given the cross-sectional and self-reported design, findings should be interpreted as exploratory segmentation patterns rather than predictive or causal evidence.