Enjoyment Mediates Associations Between The Built Environment And Family Social Environment With Adolescent Physical Activity

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the direct effects and mediating effects of physical activity (PA) enjoyment on the associations between facets of the built environment and family social environment with self-reported PA in a representative sample of adolescents. METHODS: Participants were US high school students who participated in the National Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition Study (N = 11,429; 49.4% female). The dependent variable was a self-report survey item indicating the weekly frequency of meeting 60 minutes of PA per day. One set of independent variables were items asking about the built environment including sports equipment availability, playground/park/gym proximity, and neighborhood safety for PA. A second set of independent variables were items asking about the family social environment including adult PA encouragement, adult PA participation, adult transportation for PA, and adult watching of PA. The mediating variable was a latent variable derived from two items representing PA enjoyment. All 5-point Likert responses were recoded so that low scores indicated unfavorable responses for PA promotion and high scores indicated favorable responses. A weighted structural equation model tested the standardized direct effects and indirect effects (IE) of the associations between the built environment and family social environment variables with self-reported PA controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and BMI%tile. RESULTS: Significant PA enjoyment mediating effects on self-reported PA were observed for all built environment variables (IE range = 0.015-0.033, p < 0.001) and for adult transportation for PA (IE = 0.013, p = 0.001). The strongest direct effects were the associations between adult PA encouragement (β = 0.10, p < 0.001), adult transportation for PA (β = 0.14, p < 0.001), and adult watching of PA (β = 0.12, p < 0.001) with self-reported PA. CONCLUSIONS: PA enjoyment partially mediated the associations between facets of the built environment and family social environment with self-reported PA in adolescents. Stronger PA enjoyment mediating effects were found for the associations between built environment variables and adolescent PA, but the strongest direct effects were observed between family social environment variables and adolescent PA.