1. What older adolescents expect from physical activity: Implicit cognitions regarding health and appearance outcomes
- Author
-
Tara-Leigh F. McHugh, Wendy M. Rodgers, Kimberly McFadden, and Tanya R. Berry
- Subjects
Male ,Multivariate analysis ,Adolescent ,Universities ,Self-concept ,Physical activity ,Automaticity ,Health outcomes ,03 medical and health sciences ,Young Adult ,0302 clinical medicine ,Social cognition ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Body Image ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Association (psychology) ,Students ,Exercise ,Motivation ,030505 public health ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Cognition ,Physical Appearance, Body ,Female ,0305 other medical science ,Psychology ,Attitude to Health ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
OBJECTIVE To explore older adolescents' reflective and impulsive thoughts about health- and social/appearance-related physical activity (PA) outcomes and investigate how those thoughts relate to their PA behavior. PARTICIPANTS One hundred and forty-four undergraduate students (109 women; 35 men) aged 17-19 years (M = 18.11, SD = 0.65) participated in this study in October 2015. METHODS Participants completed a Go/No-go Association Task that assessed automaticity of associations between PA words and either health outcomes or social/appearance outcomes. Questionnaires assessing PA behavior, attitudes, outcome expectations, and body image were also completed. RESULTS Participants demonstrated a positive automatic association between PA and social/appearance outcomes, F(1, 136) = 4.403, p < .05, η2 = .031, but they showed no difference in their associations between PA and desirable or undesirable health outcomes, F(1, 136) = 2.405, p = .123, η2 = .017. CONCLUSIONS Older adolescents implicitly attend to the social/appearance outcomes of PA more than potential health outcomes, indicating that social recognition and a desirable physique may be the key PA motivators for adolescents.
- Published
- 2018