Factors related to meeting physical activity guidelines in active college students: A social cognitive perspective

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine the relations of sex, exercise self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and social support with meeting physical activity guidelines (PAGs). Participants: Three hundred ninety-six college students participated in this study in the summer 2013. Methods: Students completed online questionnaires that assessed physical activity behaviors and psychosocial factors (ie, self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and social support). Students' physical activity profile was categorized as meeting no PAGs, meeting aerobic PAGs only, meeting muscle-strengthening PAGs only, or meeting both PAGs. Results: A multinomial logistic regression revealed that students' sex and psychosocial factors significantly affected the odds of meeting any and all PAGs. Sex significantly moderated the relationship between outcome expectancy and meeting aerobic PAGs and between outcome expectancy meeting muscle-strengthening PAGs. Conclusions: Results indicate that interventions designed to increase psychosocial factors may increase the likelihood of students meeting any and all PAGs. Social support may be especially beneficial for increasing muscle-strengthening activity.

KEYWORDS:

• Aerobic physical activity
• health promotion
• muscle-strengthening physical activity
• outcome expectations
• self-efficacy
• social support

Acknowledgments

We would first like to thank the students for volunteering to participate in this investigation. Second, we would like to give a special thanks to the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of North Texas, Dr Teresa McKinney, and the Director of Recreational Sports for Pohl Recreation Center at the University of North Texas, Laurie Klein. Their collaboration was essential, and they graciously gave their time and supplied us with information that gave purpose and possibility to our study.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the University of North Texas.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.