Evaluating Adolescents’ Reasons to Participate in Physical Activity: Alternative Approaches and Alternative Benefits

摘要

The purpose of the study was to examine reasons to participate as precursors to increasing physical activity of adolescents who are low active and/or have an unhealthy weight status. Adolescents ( N = 173) from an urban high school were grouped by two composite measures of weight status-perceived fitness, and effort-involvement physical activity. Adolescents completed an adapted eight-question survey based on Kenyon’s (1968) multidimensional evaluative model of physical activity. Profile analyses examined group mean differences for reasons to participate and a one-way ANOVA examined group mean differences for physical activity behavior. For the reasons to participate profiles, the weight-status perceived-fitness groups reported significant differences for the tests of levels and flatness. The effort-involvement physical activity groups reported significantly different parallel profiles , levels, and flatness. For physical activity behavior, the weight-status perceived-fitness groups reported significant mean differences. We discussed the practical implications of groupi ng weight-status with perceived-fitness to reflect lifestyle, and the importance of light effort as part of the effort-involvement physical activity variable. We also examined the practical implications for physical educators and physical activity leaders of the different and common evaluativ e profiles, and physical activity behavior of adolescents for health benefits, and other participatory reasons.