Examining the Relationship between Gender, Age, Education Level and Social Cognitive Factors in a Health Setting

Abstract

Most research on exercise is dominated in the West and is seldom featured in the marketing literature. Efforts inexamining the demographic differences with respect to social cognitive factors contained in the Theory of PlannedBehavior (TPB) have been largely neglected. This paper aims to examine the relationship between gender, age,education level and the TPB sub-components of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control.Conducted in Malaysia, this study employs a cross-sectional survey administered to a quota sample of 512general adults. A fit measurement model with adequate evidence of convergent and discriminant validity isestablished using confirmatory factor analysis. Overall, the results show that gender, age, and education do exerta certain level of influence on the social cognitive factors and the subjects’ exercise behavior. The application ofsocio-cognitive approach to examine the exercise behavior yielded contributions in terms of theory,methodology, and practice.