Research article
Self-Management Strategies Mediate Self-Efficacy and Physical Activity

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2005.03.012Get rights and content

Background

Self-efficacy theory proposes that girls who have confidence in their capability to be physically active will perceive fewer barriers to physical activity or be less influenced by them, be more likely to pursue perceived benefits of being physically active, and be more likely to enjoy physical activity. Self-efficacy is theorized also to influence physical activity through self-management strategies (e.g., thoughts, goals, plans, and acts) that support physical activity, but this idea has not been empirically tested.

Methods

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the factorial validity of a measure of self-management strategies for physical activity. Next, the construct validity of the measure was tested by examining whether self-management strategies mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and self-reported physical activity, independently of several social-cognitive variables (i.e., perceived barriers, outcome expectancy value, and enjoyment), among cross-sectional samples of 6th grade (n=309) and 8th grade (n=296) girls tested between February 14 and March 17, 2002. Data were analyzed in 2004.

Results

Consistent with theory, self-efficacy had direct effects on the social-cognitive variables. The primary novel finding is that self-management strategies mediated the association of self-efficacy with physical activity in both samples.

Conclusions

The measure of self-management strategies for physical activity yields valid scores among adolescent girls and warrants experimental study as a mediator of the influence of efficacy beliefs on physical activity.

Introduction

Physical inactivity contributes to the increasing health burden of obesity and type 2 diabetes among youths in the United States.1, 2 Recent estimates indicate that 26% of girls and 20% of boys aged 9 to 13 years do not participate in physical activity during their free time.3 Moreover, physical activity declines during adolescence, especially among girls.4, 5, 6, 7 The public health significance of physical inactivity among adolescent girls underscores the importance of identifying mediators and moderators of physical activity that can be targeted by interventions to increase physical activity levels.8

Social-cognitive variables (i.e., beliefs that are formed by social learning and reinforcement history, such as self-efficacy, perceived barriers, outcome expectancy value, and affective experience) are putative influences on self-initiated change in health behavior.9 They may be especially important during early adolescence as physical activity increasingly becomes a leisure choice. A large number of social-cognitive correlates of physical activity have been identified among adolescents,10 but their independent utility for explaining physical activity has not been determined within the context of established theoretical models of behavior change.

Self-efficacy theory11, 12 proposes that confidence in personal ability to carry out a behavior (i.e., self-efficacy) influences the direction, intensity, and persistence of behavior. Accordingly, girls who have high self-efficacy about physical activity would perceive fewer barriers to their physical activity or be less influenced by them, be more likely to act (i.e., pursue goals) on their expectations of desirable outcomes of being physically active (i.e., outcome expectancy value), and be more likely to enjoy physical activity. The causal path between self-efficacy and goal striving has been further elaborated by a mediating role of intervening processes12 or implementation strategies13 (e.g., instrumental acts) that consist of planning, monitoring, and guidance control of goal pursuit. Thus, self-efficacy might influence physical activity by self-management strategies (e.g., thoughts, goals, plans, and acts) that support physical activity, but this idea has not been tested. Nigg14 recently provided evidence of sequential, cross-sectional bivariate relationships across 3 years between exercise behavior and self-efficacy, outcome expectancy value, and a measure of processes of change among adolescents, but the independent and mediated relations of those variables with physical activity were not simultaneously evaluated in that report.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the validity of a measure of self-management strategies for physical activity by testing whether it mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and physical activity, independently of selected social-cognitive variables (i.e., perceived barriers, outcome expectancy value, and enjoyment), among two samples of adolescent girls differing in age. Such a mediating influence would provide evidence for the construct validity of self-management strategies by confirming the functional, theoretical network15 among self-efficacy, self-management strategies, and physical activity.11, 12, 13

The validity of measures of the variables had not been reported among 6th grade girls, so confirmatory factor analytic procedures16, 17 were used first to establish the factorial validity and the multigroup and longitudinal (i.e., 2 weeks) invariance of the measures in separate samples of 6th and 8th grade girls. Factorial validity is the degree to which the structure of a measure conforms to the theoretical definition of its construct.15, 18, 19, 20 Factorial invariance is the degree to which a construct is measured similarly between groups of people or across points of time.18, 21 Without evidence for factorial invariance, differences between groups or across time in scores on a measure might reflect variability in the measurement properties of the self-report instrument used rather than true differences in the latent variable.

Section snippets

Participants

Adolescent girls in the 6th (n=309) and 8th (n=296) grades were recruited from one to four middle schools in each of six regions of the United States (Baltimore MD, Columbia SC, Minneapolis MN, New Orleans LA, San Diego CA, and Tucson AZ) for the pilot testing of social-cognitive measures to be employed as potential moderators, mediators, or secondary outcomes in the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls, a physical activity intervention study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood

Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistics for the variables are presented in Table 2. The correlations among the variables are provided in Table 3.

Factorial Validity of Measures

Results of the confirmatory factor analyses of responses to the questionnaires supported the factorial validity of the measures. The multigroup and longitudinal invariance analyses indicated that the factor structure and factor loadings were invariant between the samples of 6th and 8th grade girls, and across time in the combined sample, for the self-management

Discussion

This study provides the initial test by covariance modeling of the validity and usefulness of the self-management strategies questionnaire among adolescent girls. Construct validity was supported by the evidence for factorial validity and invariance of the self-management strategies measure and its independent relationship with physical activity in both samples of 6th- and 8th-grade girls.

Two novel findings of the study are consistent with self-efficacy theory, but had not been previously

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    This research was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (U01HL66858, U01HL66857, U01HL66845, U01HL66856, U01HL66855, U01HL66853, and U01HL66852).

    No financial conflict of interest was reported by the authors of this paper.

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