Time perspective and physical activity among central Appalachian adolescents

Catch me if you can! How French adolescents seize social occasions and opportunities to be active

BACKGROUND

Following an ecological framework, the aim of this study was to highlight the way adolescents invested their time in opportunities to engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) according to whether they were profiled as more or less active. This study's innovation lies in the analysis of MVPA according to social occasions which are understood as opportunities to be active throughout the day (e.g. home, school, transport).

METHODS

PA data measured by accelerometry (ActiGraph GT3X) for seven consecutive days were compiled, with adolescents' social occasions during the week recorded in a daily digital diary (n = 135). The opportunity ratio of MVPA at each social time is the ratio between time spent in MVPA and the duration of a corresponding social occasion. Following the literature, participants were categorised into three profiles according to their reported amount of MVPA: HEPA active, minimally active and inactive. Non-parametric Wilcoxon signed rank and Kruskal Wallis tests were performed to determine the relative intensity of PA performed at different social occasions, and to investigate whether intensities differed between adolescents with various activity profiles.

RESULTS

Results showed that engagement in MVPA at different social occasions differed according to participant profiles. Mismatch was noticed between the opportunity ratio and the duration of the most and least favorable social occasions for MVPA. For all three profiles, the social occasion "physical education lesson" revealed an opportunity ratio of MVPA (23.6% vs 17.0% vs 13.8%) significantly higher than the overall opportunity ratio of the week (6.9% vs 2.9% vs 1.2%), but of lower duration. Conversely, "home" (5.3% vs 0.0% vs 0.0%) and "school" (outside of PE time) (2.4% vs 0.0% vs 0.0%) represented the two least opportune social occasions for PA in an adolescent's week.

CONCLUSIONS

Rethinking engagement with MVPA in the context of temporal opportunities would allow potential ways to intervene within an educational supervised setting to help young people adopt a physically active lifestyle at the end of the key period of adolescence. These results reinforced the importance of context in interventions for PA promotion, opening for "time education" in people.

No Evidence for a Boost in Psychosocial Functioning in Older Age After a 6-Months Physical Exercise Intervention

The beneficial effects of physical exercise on physical health and cognitive functioning have been repeatedly shown. However, evidence of its effect on psychosocial functioning in healthy adults is still scarce or inconclusive. One limitation of many studies examining this link is their reliance on correlational approaches or specific subpopulations, such as clinical populations. The present study investigated the effects of a physical exercise intervention on key factors of psychosocial functioning, specifically well-being, stress, loneliness, and future time perspective. We used data from healthy, previously sedentary older adults (N = 132) who participated in a 6-month at-home intervention, either engaging in aerobic exercise or as part of a control group who participated in foreign language-learning or reading of selected native-language literature. Before and after the intervention, comprehensive cardiovascular pulmonary testing and a psychosocial questionnaire were administered. The exercise group showed significantly increased fitness compared to the control group. Contrary to expectations, however, we did not find evidence for a beneficial effect of this fitness improvement on any of the four domains of psychosocial functioning we assessed. This may be due to pronounced stability of such psychological traits in older age, especially in older adults who show high levels of well-being initially. Alternatively, it may be that the well-documented beneficial effects of physical exercise on brain structure and function, as well as cognition differ markedly from beneficial effects on psychosocial functioning. While aerobic exercise may be the driving factor for the former, positive effects on the latter may only be invoked by other aspects of exercise, for example, experiences of mastery or a feeling of community.

Motivational power of future time perspective: Meta-analyses in education, work, and health

Future time perspective (FTP) may predict individual attitudes and behaviors. However, FTP research includes different FTP conceptualizations and outcomes which hinder generalizing its findings. To solve the inconsistencies in FTP research and generalize the magnitude of FTP as a driver of motivation and behavior, we conducted the first systematical synthesis of FTP relationships in three crucial life domains. Our meta-analyses of FTP studies in education (k = 28), work (k = 17), and health (k = 32) involved N = 31,558 participants, and used a conceptual model for grouping FTP constructs. To address different outcome types, we applied the Theory of Planned Behavior when coding the studies. FTP relationships with outcomes were small-to-medium, were generalizable across domains, and were strongest when the FTP construct included a mixture of cognition, behavioral intention, and affect and, in education, when the FTP measure was domain specific rather than general. There were cross-cultural differences in FTP-outcome relationships. The strength of the FTP-outcome types relationship varied for attitudes, perceived behavioral control, behavioral intention, and behaviors. The lowest effect sizes were found for FTP predicting actual behaviors in education, work, and health and between FTP and health attitudes. Theoretical implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

Time perspective and the theory of planned behavior: moderate predictors of physical activity among central Appalachian adolescents

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study was to determine how well time perspective and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) predicted physical activity among adolescents residing in the central Appalachian region of the United States.

METHOD

A descriptive, correlational design was used. The setting was a rural high school in central Appalachia. The sample included 185 students in grades 9 through 12. Data were collected in school. Variables included components of the TPB, time perspective, and various levels of exercise. Data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis.

RESULTS

The TPB was a moderate predictor of exercise frequency among central Appalachian adolescents, accounting for 42% of the variance. Time perspective did not add to the predictive ability of the TPB to predict exercise frequency in this sample.

DISCUSSION

This study provides support for the TPB for predicting frequency of exercise among central Appalachian adolescents. By understanding the role of the TPB in predicting physical activity among adolescents, nurse practitioners will be able to adapt intervention strategies to improve the physical activity behaviors of this population.