The influence of close others’ exercise habits and perceived social support on exercise
Highlights
► We examined social support, close others’ exercise, and own exercise. ► We also examined the effects of friend’s versus romantic partner’s exercise. ► Friend’s exercise was associated with own exercise when perceived support was high. ► Exercise of close others and social support are associated with own exercise.
Section snippets
Participants
Undergraduates at a public northeastern university who were required to fulfill research participation requirements participated in the study. Since a focus of the study was to compare perceived exercise habits of friends and romantic partners, only participants in a romantic relationship were included (N = 220). Participants reported on the perceived exercise habits of their best friend and their romantic partner. Participants’ age ranged from 18 to 26 (M = 18.9), and gender was 56.4% female and
Results
Descriptive statistics and correlations between study variables for the sample are reported in Table 1. We tested for multicollinearity by examining variance inflation factors, none of which exceeded 4.0, indicating no problems with multicollinearity (Kleinbaum, Kupper, Muller, & Nizam, 1998). Independent samples t-tests examining gender differences for support for exercise and own, partner’s, and friend’s exercise were not statistically significant.
Results of the hierarchical regression are
Discussion
With exercise rates being low, it is important to examine predictors of exercise, such as perceived social support. Findings demonstrated that perceived exercise habits of both best friends and romantic partners are independently associated with one’s own exercise habits, when controlling for body weight. There are a few possible explanations for this association. First, friends and romantic partners may model exercise behavior. That is, people may exercise based on what they see their close
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