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Title: Psychological correlates of self-reported and objectively measured physical activity among Chinese children—psychological correlates of PA

Author
item WANG, JING - Hong Kong Baptist University
item BARANOWSKI, TOM - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item LAU, PATRICK - Hong Kong Baptist University
item CHEN, TZU - University Of Texas Health Science Center
item ZHANG, SHU - Hong Kong Baptist University

Submitted to: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/6/2016
Publication Date: 10/13/2016
Citation: Wang, J.J., Baranowski, T., Lau, P.W., Chen, T.A., Zhang, S.G. 2016. Psychological correlates of self-reported and objectively measured physical activity among Chinese children—psychological correlates of PA. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 13(10):1006.

Interpretive Summary: Many studies of child physical activity use self-reported methods because it is easier and cheaper to collect when studying large numbers of children. There has been some concern that what psychosocial variables correlate with self-reported physical activity may not also correlate with objectively assessed physical activity. This study tested this hypothesis among 449 Chinese children and early adolescents. The levels of correlations between the psychosocial variables and self-reported physical activity were much higher than with objectively recorded physical activity. This was likely due to common errors of self-report in the self-reported psychosocial variables and physical activity. The psychosocial variables that correlated with self-reported physical activity were also somewhat different than those correlated with objectively assessed physical activity. These results underline the importance of using objective measures of physical activity when studying its psychosocial correlates.

Technical Abstract: This study aimed to explore the associations among psychological correlates and physical activity (PA) in Chinese children and to further examine whether these associations varied by different PA measures. PA self-efficacy, motivation, and preference were reported in 449 8–13-year-old Chinese children (252 males). Moderate- to vigorous- intensity PA (MVPA) was measured by the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C) and with an ActiGraph GT3X accelerometer. Correlations and hierarchical regressions were performed to explore their associations. The study psychological variables were all positively related to PAQ-C and objective MVPA (r: 0.22–0.63). The associations with PAQ-C were all substantially stronger than those with accelerometry. Beyond the explained variance accounted for by demographics and social desirability, the addition of the psychological correlates accounted for 45% of the variance of the PAQ-C score, while only 13% for accelerometry-based MVPA. The associations of specific variables with the PAQ-C score (age, PA self-efficacy, autonomous motivation and preference) were somewhat different from those associated with objective MVPA (PA self-efficacy, autonomous motivation, and negatively associated with female gender). This study demonstrated the importance of self-efficacy and autonomous motivation in association with PA and indicated the difference in level of their associations with different PA measures.