ABSTRACT
Understanding the factors involved in being active enough for health benefits is necessary to promote health-related physical activity. Given the documented role of social support in women's activity (Molloy et al. 2010), this study examined the relationship between Weiss's (1974) social provisions and health-related physical activity in young women. College undergraduate women (N = 136) from a kinesiology course completed a modified Social Provisions Scale (Cutrona and Russell 1987) and reported on the physical activity they engaged in with others over a 4-week period in the fall of 2011. We used average daily energy expenditure, calculated based on participants' reported activity involvement, to classify participants as either sufficiently or insufficiently active (Canadian Fitness & Lifestyle Research Institute 1999). A logistic regression using sufficient/insufficient activity levels for health as the dependent variable revealed that the six provisions reliably differentiated between those who were active enough for health benefits versus not. Of the six, two provisions were significantly associated with health-related physical activity--specifically, those who held higher perceptions of reassurance of worth and social integration were more likely to be in the sufficiently-active group. These results provide an initial indication of the specific social provisions associated with young women who are active enough to achieve health benefits.
Subject(s)
Energy Metabolism/physiology , Exercise , Motor Activity , Self Concept , Social Support , Canada , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Health Status , Humans , Logistic Models , Social Environment , Social Identification , Socioeconomic Factors , Surveys and Questionnaires , Women's Health , Young AdultABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Social influence channels (e.g., parents) and types (e.g., compliance) have each been related to physical activity independently, but little is known about how these two categories of influence may operate in combination. PURPOSE: This study examined the relationships between various combinations of social influence and physical activity among youth across structured and unstructured settings. METHODS: Adolescents (N=304), classified as high or low active, reported the social influence combinations they received for being active. RESULTS: Participants identified three channels and three types of influence associated with being active. For structured activity, compliance with peers and significant others predicted membership in the high active group (values of p< .001). In the unstructured setting, peer compliance (p= .009) and conformity (p= .019) were associated with active group membership. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reinforce considering both setting, as well as the channel/type combinations of social influence, when examining health-related physical activity.