title: Predicting adolescent eating and activity behaviors: the role of social norms and personal agency.
abstract: Guided by the theory of planned behavior, this 2-week longitudinal study examined health behaviors in a sample of 279 adolescents. Social norms and perceived behavioral control (PBC) were tested as predictors of self-reported intentions and behaviors in 2 domains, eating and physical activity. Differentiating, as opposed to aggregating, parent and peer norms provided unique information. For PBC, the authors distinguished global causality beliefs from self-related agency beliefs and intraself (effort, ability) from extraself (parents, teachers) means. Intraself agency beliefs strongly predicted healthy intentions, whereas intraself causality beliefs had a negative influence. Patterns differed somewhat across behaviors and gender. Results highlight theoretical issues and provide potential targets for research on health promotion programs for youth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yale University, USA. cbaker4@partners.org
authors.forename: Christina Wood
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Todd D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Little
authors.forename: Kelly D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Brownell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires