Abstract
Background: Values of young urban professionals (yuppies) are still valid and it is possible to find references to the lifestyle of young people. This also applies to the younger generation, in other words, middle-aged urban professionals (muppies). Objective: The aim is evaluating whether yuppies and muppies can be a role model for society in the field of taking care of leisure-time physical activity (PA). Methods: Surveys were conducted by an Omnibus survey on the representative sample of Poles in two studies (N = 1053, N = 1067). Persons aged 20-39 (N = 762 were selected) and based on the criteria: education, residence in cities, study skills character of work, income, there was created a yuppie/muppie group (n = 67) and non-yuppies (n = 695). International Physical Activity Questionnaire - Long Form was used. Results: Recommendations of WHO were met by 43.3% of yuppies/muppies and 33.4% of non-yuppies. No significant differences between groups were observed (p = .103) in this regard. There were no significant differences also between groups in practiced days per week leisure-time PA (walking p = .069, moderate PA p = .095, vigorous PA p = .256). The average value of MET-min/week for vigorous PA during leisure time was significantly higher declared (p = .03) by the yuppie/muppie group (628.7 ± 1415.5 vs. 345.8 ± 1073.4 MET-min/week). Conclusions: Yuppies and muppies cannot be regarded as a role model for Polish society in terms of taking up active leisure-time activities and meeting World Health Organization recommendations. Thus, it seems valuable to carry out further research in order to find role-model groups within the population aged 20-39.
Highlights
An increase in the physical activity (PA) level is a priority goal of public health institutions and governments around the world (The Council of the European Union and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, 2011; World Health Organization [WHO], 2018) – especially because of growing concerns against the negative health effects of movement deficiency (Deelen, Ettema, & Kamphuis, 2018; Grima, Grima, Thalassinos, Seychell, & Spiteri, 2018)
One of them are young urban professionals, in the 1980s in the USA, they were regarded as an important, political, and cultural force (Carpini & Sigelman, 1986; Hammond, 1986). It seems that discussing this group is nowadays slightly not upto-date (after the financial crisis of 2008, the lifestyle of yuppies was not reflected among the young generations in America and 15 countries of the European Union before access of 10 new members in 2004 (Pan, 2017) but in post-transformation countries such as Poland, yuppies’ values are current and valid
Contemporary Polish yuppies, just like those from the 1980s (Ayto, 2006; Rottenberg, 1980), eagerly set up companies, work in representative offices of Western corporations and state administration (PR News, 2006). They are welleducated, socially aware go-getters. They represent a specific way of life: they participate in culture, eat healthy meals, care about appropriate clothing, choose active forms of spending leisure time in the company of other people (Bernasiewicz, 2013; Giddens, 2013)
Summary
An increase in the physical activity (PA) level is a priority goal of public health institutions and governments around the world (The Council of the European Union and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, 2011; World Health Organization [WHO], 2018) – especially because of growing concerns against the negative health effects of movement deficiency (Deelen, Ettema, & Kamphuis, 2018; Grima, Grima, Thalassinos, Seychell, & Spiteri, 2018). We are talking here about a new generation, in other words, middle-aged urban professionals (muppies), who have a slightly different way of life than yuppies: slow life, organic, eco food, start-up, crowd-funding (Miller, 2015), but the same set of values: the level of ambition, the pursuit of success, status, power and things important for them, for example, they care for their health and physical condition (Bernasiewicz, 2013; Pan, 2017) Like yuppies, they can provide patterns of behaviour and be an attractive determinant of behaviour for many Poles (Bernasiewicz, 2013; Giddens, 2013). It seems valuable to carry out further research in order to find role-model groups within the population aged 20–39
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