Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
PLoS One. 2021 Mar 26;16(3):e0249019. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249019. eCollection 2021.
Identifying psychological correlates of children's physical activity intentions may signpost potentially modifiable targets for interventions aimed at promoting physical activity participation. School recess and leisure-time outside of school are appropriate contexts in which such interventions may be delivered. However, few studies have identified correlates of physical activity intentions in these environments. Examining correlates in these contexts may provide formative evidence on which to base interventions to promote physical activity.
The current study adopted an integrated theoretical model to test relations between motivational constructs from self-determination theory, social cognition constructs from the theory of planned behavior, and physical activity intentions in leisure-time and school recess contexts.
Finnish school children (N = 845, M age = 13.93, SD = 0.99) from three lower-secondary schools completed self-report measures of perceived autonomy support by peers, autonomous and controlled motivation, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and physical activity intentions for both contexts.
Well-fitting structural equation models controlling for past behavior indicated that autonomous motivation in the school recess context and attitude in both contexts were the most pervasive predictors of physical activity intentions, and mediated the relationship between perceived autonomy support and intentions. Multi-group analyses supported invariance of the models in both contexts across gender, grades, and school, with few variations.
The current study supports relations between motivational and social cognition correlates of children's physical activity intentions in school recess and leisure-time contexts. Future research should extend these findings to the prediction of follow-up participation in physical activity.
识别儿童体育活动意向的心理相关因素可以为旨在促进体育活动参与的干预措施指明潜在的可改变目标。学校课间休息和课余时间是可以实施这些干预措施的适当环境。然而，很少有研究确定这些环境中体育活动意向的相关因素。在这些背景下研究相关因素可以为促进体育活动的干预措施提供基础。
本研究采用综合理论模型，测试了自我决定理论的动机结构、计划行为理论的社会认知结构与闲暇时间和课间休息时体育活动意向之间的关系。
来自三所初中的 845 名芬兰学童（M 年龄=13.93，SD=0.99）完成了同伴感知自主性支持、自主和受控动机、态度、主观规范、感知行为控制以及这两个环境下体育活动意向的自我报告测量。
经过过去行为控制的拟合良好的结构方程模型表明，课间休息时的自主动机和两个环境中的态度是体育活动意向最普遍的预测因素，并且介导了感知自主性支持和意向之间的关系。多组分析支持了模型在性别、年级和学校方面的跨情境不变性，只有很少的变化。
本研究支持了儿童在课间休息和课余时间进行体育活动意向的动机和社会认知相关因素之间的关系。未来的研究应该将这些发现扩展到对体育活动后续参与的预测。
