Social provisions in the exercise setting

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Date
2004-12-14Author
Watson, Jocelyn Dawn
Type
ThesisDegree Level
MastersMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Social support has been recognized to impact positive health behaviours, including exercise participation. In the exercise domain, one conceptual framework that has been employed to examine social support is Weiss’s (1974) Model of Social Provisions. The main purpose of the present study was to utilize Weiss’s (1974) model to examine how the social provisions relate to university students’ energy expenditure while exercising with others. Specifically, this study was concerned with participants’ perceptions about the availability of social provisions, their preferences for the provisions in the exercise setting, and the congruence between social provision perceptions and preferences as they related to energy expenditure. Participants who had performed exercise with others in the past 4 weeks (N=201) completed the Modifiable Activity Questionnaire (MAQ; Kriska et al., 1990) to assess energy expenditure, as well as modified versions of the Social Provisions Scale (Cutrona & Russell, 1987) to assess social provision perceptions and preferences. Results from exploratory factor analyses revealed separate five-factor models for both the perceived provisions (i.e., attachment, reliable alliance, social integration, opportunity for nurturance, and reassurance of worth) and the preferred provisions (i.e., guidance, social integration, reliable alliance, reassurance of worth, and opportunity for nurturance). Discriminant function analyses were used to assess the unique contribution of these perceived and preferred provisions to participants’ energy expenditure. The results from the analyses indicated that none of the perceived provisions and none of the preferred provisions predicted high versus low expenditure, nor did the congruence relationship between the perceived and preferred variants of each provision predict high versus low energy expenditure. Potential explanations for the non-significant findings were highlighted with respect to study methodology. Directions for future research were also discussed.
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)Department
College of KinesiologyProgram
College of KinesiologySupervisor
Spink, Kevin S.Committee
Kowalski, Kent; Graham, Tom; Goodwin, DonnaCopyright Date
December 2004Subject
social provisions
young adults
energy expenditure
exercise
social support