RESEARCH ARTICLE


Health-Related Social Control Influences the Physical Activity of College Students



Kelly A. Cotter1, *, Jennifer A. Mendiola2
1 California State University, Stanislaus, CA, USA
2 University of California, Merced, CA, USA


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Creative Commons License
© 2019 Cotter and Mendiola.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the California State University, Stanislaus one university circle, Turlock, CA, USA; Tel: 209-6673865;
E-mail: Kcotter@csustan.edu


Abstract

Objective:

To examine the impact of health-related social control tactics on the physical activity behavior of college students.

Participants:

110 undergraduates (74% women) recorded their naturalistic behavior across eight consecutive days between March and May of 2010.

Methods:

A short-term longitudinal daily diary survey examined daily self-reports of received health-related social control (the direct regulation of a target’s health behaviors by a social partner) and minutes engaged in physical activity.

Results:

Multilevel modeling according to a two-level structure in which observations (Level 1) were nested within individuals (Level 2) revealed that positive social control for exercise (e.g., encouragement) had a positive effect on physical activity participation, both within-persons (intra-individual level) and between-persons (inter-individual level). Negative social control (e.g., nagging) had no effect on physical activity participation.

Conclusion:

The present results suggest that individuals should employ positive social control tactics when attempting to enhance the physical activity behaviors of college students.

Keyword: Health-related social control, Physical activity, Daily diary, Young adults, Multilevel modeling, Chronic illness.