Development of the exercise motivation questionnaire with Mexican American adults.

Prevalence of physical inactivity is the highest among Mexican Americans (40%) as compared to only 18% among Whites. The purpose of this study was to test a culturally relevant exercise motivation instrument with 269 Mexican Americans living along the southern New Mexico border area. Construct validation was supportive with items clustering into five factors consistent with reversal theory constructs explaining 54% of the variance. Further support was achieved with a positive correlation between the Exercise Motivation Questionnaire.Mexican American ( EMQ-MA) and the Motives for Activity Participation Questionnaire ( r = .10-.77) and with regular exercisers scoring higher on all subscales. Internal consistency values for the subscales ranged from .80 to .90. There is potential for developing individualized exercise interventions based on exercise motivation as measured by the EMQ-MA. Keywords: exercise behavior; exercise motivation; reversal theory; Mexican Americans; Hispanics Of the total 2,391,400 deaths in the United States in 2000, approximately 17% (400,000) can be attributed physical inactivity ( U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [ USDHHS], 2004 ). In 2006, only 30.9% of adults were engaging in the recommended amounts of moderate leisure-time physical activity ( Centers for Disease Control [CDC ], 2007 ). Rates are even lower ( 24%) for adults performing the recommended amounts of vigorous leisure-time physical activity ( USDHHS, 2004). Regular leisure-time physical activity is defined as engaging in light to moderate leisuretime physical activity for a minimum of 30 minutes at least five times per week or vigorous leisure-time physical activity a minimum of 20 minutes at least three times per week (CDC, 2007 ). Physical inactivity is more prevalent among racial and ethnic minorities than among Whites. Crespo, Smit, Andersen, Carter-Pokras, and Ainsworth ( 2000) found that prevalence of adults reporting physical inactivity is the highest among Mexican Americans (40%), whereas it is only 18% among Whites. Understanding what motivates people to become physically active is important for designing effective exercise interventions. Motives for exercising may differ between cultural groups. Berg, Cromwell, and Arnett ( 2002 ) found that support from the family was a critical motivator for Mexican American women, while Anglo American women valued a more individualized focus/outcomes as being important. Thus, instruments to assess these motives are greatly needed. Few instruments have been developed, and even fewer are based on theoretical models. Further, no exercise-specific instruments were found that were both theoretically driven and culturally relevant. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a culturally relevant instrument to measure exercise motivation among Mexican Americans living along the southern New Mexico border area. BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Physical inactivity is an independent predictor of risk for many chronic diseases and premature mortality. In North America, this risk is 20% to 50% greater among those who are sedentary ( Warburton, Nicol, & Bredin, 2006). A much higher proportion of Hispanics in the southern New Mexico border region rated their health as fair or poor than the nation as a whole ( 21% vs. 15%), and the difference was even more striking between Hispanics and non-Hispanics ( 25% vs. 14%) in the border region ( Paso del Norte Health Foundation, 2005 ). A higher proportion of Hispanics in the southern New Mexico border region are considered obese as compared with their non-Hispanic counterparts ( 26% vs. 22%). Consequently, issues related to adherence with health promotion activities such as regular physical activity must be better understood in order to develop effective interventions to eliminate disparities and promote optimal health (Amaro & de la Torre, 2002 ). Regular physical activity can result in many positive health outcomes. …