Group exercise membership is associated with forms of social support, exercise identity, and amount of physical activity

ABSTRACT

Exploring whether the mechanisms underlying the positive relationship between group exercise and physical activity are forms of social support – emotional, validation, informational, instrumental, and companionship and exercise identity. Participants (n = 506; M age = 34.3) completed a 235-item questionnaire assessing physical activity, exercise identity, social support, and other determinants of physical activity. Exploratory path analysis was used to model group exercise membership, forms of social support, exercise identity, and metabolic equivalent (MET) minutes/wk. Women and men had similar yet varying results. For women, group exercise membership was significantly associated with MET-minutes/wk (β = 0.11) and exercise identity (β = 0.17). There was a significant association between exercise identity and MET-minutes/wk (β = 0.38). Women perceived belonging to an exercise group provides emotional (β = 0.36), validation (β = 0.25), informational (β = 0.35), instrumental (β = 0.19), and companionship (β = 0.46) support. Validation (β = 0.11), informational (β = 0.21), and companionship (B = 0.17) were significantly associated with exercise identity for women. For men, group exercise membership was not significantly associated with MET-minutes/wk or exercise identity. Exercise identity was significantly associated with MET-minutes/wk (β = 0.46). Men perceived belonging to their group provides emotional (β = 0.31), validation (β = 0.32), informational (β = 0.33), and companionship (β = 0.34). Validation (β = 0.22), informational (β = 0.30), and emotional (β = 0.23) were significantly associated with exercise identity for men. Belonging to an exercise group is associated with forms of social support that strengthen exercise identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Adults
• group exercise
• exercise identity
• social support
• exploratory path model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The IRB from The University of Texas at Austin approved this study. Participants provided written consent prior to completing the online survey. The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy concerns, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32AG058529. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.