Psychosocial correlates to high school girls' leisure-time physical activity: a test of the theory of planned behavior.
This study was designed to test the efficacy of the theory of planned behavior in predicting intention to engage in leisure-time physical activity and leisure-time physical activity behavior of high school girls. Rating scales were used for assessing attitude to leisure-time physical activity, subjective norm, perceived control, and intention to engage in leisure-time physical activity among 129 ninth through twelfth graders. Leisure-time physical activity was obtained from 3-wk. diaries. The first hierarchical multiple regression indicated that perceived control added (R2 change = .033) to the contributions of attitude to leisure-time physical activity and subjective norm in accounting for 50.7% of the total variance of intention to engage in leisure-time physical activity. The second regression analysis indicated that almost 10% of the variance of leisure-time physical activity was explicated by intention to engage in leisure-time physical activity and perceived control, with perceived control contributing 6.4%. From both academic and theoretical standpoints, our findings support the theory of planned behavior, although quantitatively the variance of leisure-time physical activity was not well-accounted for. In addition, considering the small percentage increase in variance explained by the addition of perceived control explaining variance of intention to engage in leisure-time physical activity, the pragmatism of implementing the measure of perceived control is questionable for this population.
Department of Health Services, Lehman College of the City University of New York, 417 Gillet Hall, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY 10468, USA. mkerner@lehman.cuny.edu
Matthew S
MS
Kerner
Anthony B
AB
Kurrant
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities; D009043:Motor Activity; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011584:Psychology; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires