Jocelyn D Ulvick

Social Influence and Adolescent Health-Related Physical Activity in Structured and Unstructured Settings: Role of Channel and Type

BackgroundSocial 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.PurposeThis study examined the relationships between various combinations of social influence and physical activity among youth across structured and unstructured settings.MethodsAdolescents (N = 304), classified as high or low active, reported the social influence combinations they received for being active.ResultsParticipants 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.ConclusionsThese findings reinforce considering both setting, as well as the channel/type combinations of social influence, when examining health-related physical activity.

Social Provisions and Young Women's Health-Related Physical Activity.

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.

Groupness, cohesion, and intention to return to sport: A study of intact youth teams:

The positive benefits for youth participating in sport have been well documented. Yet, keeping athletes returning to sport has been a concern. While various factors have been examined to explain this attrition, facets of the sport group experience have started to emerge. From a group perspective, it has been established that athlete intentions to return to a sport team the following season are positively associated with perceived team cohesion. While cohesion is a key group construct, other group factors are worthy of examination. The purpose of the current study was to build upon the research base by examining whether the relationship between cohesion and intention to return would be moderated by another group factor—the level of groupness ascribed to the team. At the end of a competitive season, youth soccer athletes (N = 156) completed measures of task cohesion, groupness, and intention to return to their team in the future. Results revealed that the task cohesion-intention to return relationship was significantly moderated by groupness, p = .03. Simple slopes analysis revealed that the strongest relationship between task cohesion and intention to return occurred under conditions of lower groupness. These initial results indicated that intention to return was highest when the team was perceived as higher in task cohesion, regardless of groupness perceptions. However, when the team was perceived to be lower in task cohesion, those who perceived their team as being more like a group indicated a greater willingness to return to the team in the future.