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Social and Behavioral Sciences

Associations between physical activity motives and trends in moderate-to-Vigorous physical activity among adolescents over five years

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Pages 2147-2160 | Accepted 23 Apr 2021, Published online: 14 Jul 2021
 

ABSTRACT

This study examined the longitudinal associations between five physical activity (PA) motives and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) across a 5-year period spanning late childhood to middle adolescence.

METHODS: Data (n = 937; 55% girls; mean age = 10.33 years) were drawn from the Monitoring Activities for Teenagers to Comprehend their Habits study. PA motives and MVPA were assessed 15 times over the course of 5 years. Measurement invariance for the Motives for Physical Activity Measure-Revised (MPAM-R) questionnaire was established, and sex-stratified mixed-effects regression models were analysed.

MVPA increased until a mean age of 12.18 years for girls and 12.89 years for boys before decreasing through the final assessment. From late childhood to middle adolescence, for boys, enjoyment motives were positively (β(95% CI) = 6.14(3.86–8.43)), while fitness motives were negatively (β(95% CI) = −4.80(−8.0, −1.59)) associated with MVPA. Whereas, for girls, competence motives were positively β(95% CI) = 3.44(1.59–5.28)) associated with MVPA

Boys may benefit from PA interventions, if these were primarily aimed at increasing ones’ enjoyment, whereas developing a girl’s competence may provide greater contributions to a girl’s future PA behaviours. PA interventions should avoid promoting the desire to be active to improve fitness, particularly among boys.

Abbreviations

PA = Physical activity

MVPA = Moderate to vigorous physical activity

MPAM-R = Motives for physical activity measure revised

USA = United States of America

MATCH = Monitoring Activities of Teenagers to Comprehend their Habits

CFA = Confirmatory factor analysis

FIML = Full information maximum likelihood

RMSEA = Root mean square error of approximation

CFI = Comparative fit index

TLI = Tucker-Lewis index

OR = Odds ratio

CAD = Canadian Dollards

Acknowledgments

During the development of this manuscript PAN held a postdoctoral fellowship from New Brunswick Health Research Foundation & Canadian Institute of Health Reseach- Strategy for Patiented Oriented Research- Maritime SPOR Support Unit. CMS is supported by the Canada research chair program.

Data Availability

The original data analyzed for these analyses are available through a data sharing agreement with the MATCH study research team. More information on this may be obtained from the principal investigator of the MATCH study, Dr. Mathieu Belanger.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

PAN conceptualized the objectives of the analysis, designed and conducted statistical analyses, and wrote the manuscript. JG helped with writing the introduction, discussion, and critically reviewed all other content. JB, KG and ID helped with the development of the analysis plan, data interpretation and critically reviewed and edited all other content. CS helped with interpretation of data and critically reviewed all other content. JB helped with writing the introduction and critically reviewed all other content. MB discussed objectives, data analysis plan, contributed to interpreting results and critically reviewed the manuscript. MB is the principal investigator of the MATCH study.

Ethics approval

All participants and their parents provided informed consent and the MATCH study was approved by the Comité d’Éthique de la Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Sherbrooke (11-025-M9).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1923203.

Additional information

Funding

The MATCH project is supported by the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation (#20130729), by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (#435-2016-0888) and by Sport Canada through the joint Sport Participation Research Initiative (#862-2010-0001; #862-2014-0002); Sport Canada, Sport Participation Research Initiative [862-2010-0001; 862-2014-0002];Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [435-2016-0888].

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