Exploring The Relationships Between Gender Norms, Self-efficacy And Physical Activity In Young Women

Abstract

The majority of adults do not accumulate sufficient amounts of physical activity (PA) to reduce chronic disease risk and women are consistently less active than men. Gender norms and self-efficacy (SE) for PA are known factors that impact women’s PA, but the antecedents of these factors are not fully understood. Benevolent sexism, a covert form of sexism, has been shown to decrease women’s SE and perpetuate restrictive gender roles, but has not been investigated in the PA domain. PURPOSE: To assess the relationships between benevolent sexism and SE, screen time, and PA in young women. METHODS: An online survey was administered to N=156 women that included the 22-item Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form, sedentary (sitting or laying down) screen time questions, and the Self-efficacy for PA questionnaire. Spearman correlations were calculated to assess the strength of association between benevolent sexism and SE, screen time, and PA outcomes [Moderate (MPA), Moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA), and Vigorous (VPA)]. RESULTS: Participants (N=156, 24±3.7 years old, 72.6% white, 10.8% Latino, 5.7% black, 7.7% Asian, 3.24% Other) were active (mins of MVPA/wk, Median (IQR)=561 (807.5)), accumulated (mean+SD) 11.6±5.3 hours of screen time/day, and reported an average benevolent sexism score of 1.6±0.8 (range 1 to 5). Associations among SE and MPA, VPA, and MVPA were r=0.06, 0.45, and 0.24, respectively; and r=-0.34 with screen time. No significant associations were observed between benevolent sexism and PA outcomes, screen time, or SE (r=-0.12 to 0.11). CONCLUSIONS: In this sample of young women, benevolent sexism was not associated with PA, screen time, or SE, a common psychosocial mediator. However, participants reported being extremely active, which may reflect significant over-reporting, and they reported very low benevolent sexism scores, which may reflect social desirability bias; neither may be generalizable beyond this sample. Future research should assess these relationships in more diverse populations and use an objective assessment of PA to better understand the role of benevolent sexism, if any, on women’s PA.