Gender differences in the psychosocial and cognitive correlates of physical activity among taiwanese adolescents: A structural equation modeling approach

Abstract

This study examined gender differences in the factors related to physical activity in 832 Taiwanese adolescents. Differences in psychosocial and cognitive correlates were noted by gender group. Taiwanese adolescent girls reported lower physical activity self-efficacy and less perceived benefits and more perceived barriers to being active than boys. Girls compared to boys reported significantly more positive social support, modeling, and norms from parents to be active but significantly less social support and norms from their peers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the direct and indirect paths of a model of proposed correlates and physical activity. The results indicated that peer influences had both direct and indirect paths to physical activity for both genders. Among all examined variables, perceived self-efficacy was the strongest correlate of physical activity for these adolescents. The findings of this study provide information relevant to designing physical activity interventions targeted to Taiwanese adolescents.

Children's self-efficacy and proxy efficacy for after-school physical activity

“…Consistent with past studies, there were group differences in self-efficacy based on gender such that males were more confident than females, [27][28] but there were no sex differences in proxy efficacy. The self-efficacy gender difference suggests that after school and parent physical activity promotion programs may need to be structured to raise the confidence of girls.…”

Mediation effects of social support on relationships of perceived environment and self-efficacy with school-based physical activity: A structural equation model tailored for Japanese adolescent girls

“…Specifically, friend support was found to be the source of support most highly related to physical activity in both lunchtime and after-school settings. Previous studies have demonstrated similar findings on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during nonschool-time and mean daily physical activity in adolescent girls [11,[35][36][37][38]. Collectively, findings suggest that developing strategies to encourage or assist with friends' physical activity behaviors can be beneficial in promoting physical activity in adolescent girls, regardless of contexts.…”

“…Compared with friend support, support from family and teachers for physical activity were found to be less important in both contexts. This finding is understandable because adolescent girls are becoming independent from family and strengthening their identification with peers [11,37]. Interestingly, the effect of family support on physical activity was significant in the after-school context but not at lunch time.…”

“…From the social ecological perspective, physical activity behavior is determined by an interaction of multilevel influences across personal, social and environmental factors, although previous studies mainly examine psychological and/or social environmental factors [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Few studies have examined physical environmental influences on physical activity, which are recognized as having long-term effects on population-based health behaviors.…”

A model-based educational intervention to increase physical activity among Iranian adolescents

“…Tal observação não foi surpreendente, pois outros estudos encontraram diferenças de sexo que podem estar afetando o tempo gasto em AF 5 , exigências e preferências 31 , sentimentos e emoções 32 e elaboração de modelo para AF 33 . No entanto, um ponto relacionado a diferenças quanto a influências situacionais entre pessoas do sexo feminino e masculino é que no Irã, enquanto país em desenvolvimento, há diferenças culturais (como opções diferentes para meninas e meninos) que podem estar exercendo impacto na AF entre os sexos.…”