Adolescents' self-efficacy to overcome barriers to Physical Activity Scale.

This paper describes a revised measure of self-efficacy to overcome barriers to moderate and vigorous physical activity in a sample of 484 high school students in Toronto, Ontario. The students had a mean age of 15.3 years. Principal axis factoring with oblique rotation yielded five factors: self-efficacy to overcome internal, harassment, physical environment, social environment, and responsibilities barriers. Two problematic items were removed, which resulted in a 22-item measure. Subsequent analyses were conducted on responses to this shortened measure. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the five-factor model and demonstrated age- and sex-invariance. The subscales had good internal consistency reliability. Structural regressions demonstrated a strong relationship between the resulting factors and a physical activity measure (energy expenditure), showing predictive validity.

Factors associated with physical and sexual violence among Canadian women living with physical disabilities.

We examined victimization data from a Canadian survey of 1,095 women with disabilities to determine the following: a) Who experienced abuse, b) the forms of abuse, and c) the factors associated with abuse. A convenience sample of Canadian women (18 years +) completed a mailed survey. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample and types of abuse (physical, emotional, or sexual). Sequential logistic regression was used to determine factors related to physical and/or sexual violence. Those who reported cultural identities other than Canadian (OR = 1.93, 95% CI = 1.12-3.32) were more likely to have reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence, as were those with an annual household income less than $20,000 (OR = 3.21, 95% CI = 1.97-5.25) or between $20,000 and $49,999 (OR = 2.08, 95% CI = 1.29-3.36). Women with two or more health conditions (OR = 3.2, 95% CI = 1.93-5.32) and those who had some or most activities limited by pain were also more likely to report having experienced physical and/or sexual violence (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.08-2.41). In contrast, women who had not received information about sexuality (OR = .68, 95% CI = .42-.96 and older women (OR = .46, 95% CI = .28-.73) were less likely to report having experienced physical and/or sexual violence. Our findings are important to public health professionals and practitioners in the detection and prevention of violence among women living with physical disabilities (WLD).

The decline in physical activity among adolescent students: a cross-national comparison.

BACKGROUND: The decline in physical activity during adolescence is a key public health concern. This comparative study assesses whether the age-related decline in physical activity among high school students occurs similarly in the United States (U.S.) and Ontario, whether the decline in physical activity is steady throughout the age range, or whether any declines are age-specific. METHODS: Data are based on self-reports of 9th- to 12th-graders derived from the 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (n=13,503) and the 2001 Ontario Student Drug Use Survey (n=1322). Physical activity is measured by the number of days of vigorous physical activity during the past 7 days. RESULTS: In both samples, there was a dominant and steady decline in physical activity between ages 14 and 18 years. The number of activity days was higher in the U.S. than in Ontario holding constant age and sex. However, a significant sample-by-age interaction showed that the decline in the percentage of U.S. students reporting 3 or more physical activity days was greater than it was in Ontario. CONCLUSIONS: While the pattern of decline was shown to be similar, the decline was stronger among US adolescents. Future research should examine additional factors influencing the decline in activity and the optimal timing of programs to reduce the decline.

A provincial study of opportunities for school-based physical activity in secondary schools.

PURPOSE: Adolescents spend considerable time at school and thus it is important to understand their opportunities for school-based physical activity. This study surveyed Ontario secondary schools to identify the range of structured opportunities and their engagement by students. METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to key informants in 600 randomly selected secondary schools in Ontario, for which 474 respondents (79%) returned completed questionnaires. RESULTS: Curriculum-based physical education (PE) classes in grade nine were reported to be offered in all schools and these classes in grades 10, 11 and 12 were offered in almost all schools. Student enrollment in PE decreased from grades 9 to 12 (97.9%, 49.6%, 43.3% and 35.9%, respectively). Respondents reported that funding, timetable, facilities and resources made it somewhat difficult to implement the health and physical education curriculum in their schools. About two-thirds (65.5%) of the schools had an intramural program and 15.0% of students participated in it, whereas 97.2% of the schools had an inter-school sports program and 25.0% of students participated in it. Supervision issues made it difficult to provide intramural programs and funding made it difficult to provide inter-school sports programs. CONCLUSIONS: Although provision of physical activity opportunities in Ontario appears satisfactory, actual engagement by students is low. The results suggest that strategies to increase student participation in PE, intramural programs, and inter-school sports programs need further consideration.

The over-claiming technique: measuring self-enhancement independent of ability.

Over-claiming is a concrete operalization of self-enhancement based on respondents' ratings of their knowledge of various persons, events, products, and so on. Because 20% of the items are nonexistent, responses can be analyzed with signal detection formulas to index both response bias (over-claiming) and accuracy (knowledge). Study 1 demonstrated convergence of over-claiming with alternative measures of self-enhancement but independence from cognitive ability. In Studies 2-3, the validity of the over-claiming index held even when respondents were (a) warned about the foils or (b) asked to fake good. Study 3 also showed the utility of the over-claiming index for diagnosing faking. In Study 4, the over-claiming technique was applied to the debate over the adaptive value of positive illusions.