BENEFITS, COSTS, AND SOURCES OF SOCIAL SUPPORT ASSOCIATED WITH ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AMONG EMPLOYED ADULTS.
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 141
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This prospective study explores the process by which employed adults establish and maintain leisure time physical activity. Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory provides the theoretical framework, in which personal factors (Total Benefits and Total Costs) and environmental factors (Sources of Social Support) are predictor variables. The survey method was used to gather baseline data by questionnaire about the benefits, costs, and sources of social support associated with participation. Two hundred forty-one subjects, aged 25-45, were divided into three internal comparison groups based on their self-defined length of exercise experience: beginning participation, three months to one year, and one year or more. The criterion variable, Mean Adherence, was computed from the subjects' observed participation in a community-based leisure time physical activity program over a 5-11 week period.

A hierarchical multiple-regression correlation model with the variables entered in sets was used to test the study hypotheses. The major finding is the consistent, positive, and statistically significant association (p < .01) between Peer Social Support and Mean Adherence across the groups. Peer sources were associated with increased Mean Adherence significantly more than were Partner/Family/Kin Sources. Total Costs explained a significant (p < .05) portion of the variability in Mean Adherence and its effect was negative. Lack of motivation, financial costs and scheduling problems were the most predictive, and Total Benefits did not predict significant additional variability in Mean Adherence.

The study demonstrates that it is desirable to measure specific social support functions and sources. There is need, also to develop measurement tools that are reliable, valid, and specific to situations of interest. Longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to determine the specific factors associated with the process of establishing participation in physical activity. Health practice implications include emphasizing the process of establishing positive health behaviors and the potential value of reinforcement from peer sources of social support.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-09, Section: B, page: 2870.

Thesis (D.N.S.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1984.

School code: 0034.