COLUMBUS, Ohio - College students are more likely to exercise if they have social support for being active, but the best kind of social support differs between men and women.
A new study of 937 randomly selected students at Ohio State University found that women were more likely to exercise if they had the social support of family, while the support of friends was more important for men.
"We found that it's important for college students to have people to encourage them to stay physically fit, but the source of the social support makes a difference for men and women." said Lorraine Silver Wallace, who co-authored the research as a doctoral student at Ohio State.
Wallace, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Tyler, conducted the study with her dissertation advisor Janet Buckworth, an assistant professor of sport and exercise sciences at Ohio State. The study was published in a recent issue of the journal Preventive Medicine.
Overall, the study found that slightly more than half the 937 students (52 percent) were physically inactive or only exercised irregularly. About one third (31 percent) had exercised regularly for six months or longer. The remainder (17 percent) had exercised regularly for less than six months.
"The steepest decline in the number of people who are involved in physical activity occurs during adolescence and early adulthood, so it is crucial that we reach those college students who are not yet regular exercisers," Buckworth said.
"We need to find ways to help the roughly half of college students who are not exercising regularly."
The fact that regular exercisers tended to have the support of friends or family is one key to designing intervention programs for college students, according to Buckworth.
"If you have a female college student who has strong support and encouragement from her family to be physically active, she would be more likely to join an aerobics class, even if the class was far from her residence hall," she said.
"But a female student who didn't have the support of her family probably wouldn't consider joining an aerobics class even if she lived in a residence hall that had a class in the basement."
In the college atmosphere, it may easier for male students to find social support than it would be for females, because students are surrounded by friends, while family may be far away.
"Intervention programs that emphasize peer support for physical activity among college women may counter a lack of family support for an active lifestyle," Wallace said.
In addition to social support, another factor that was related to regular physical activity was exercise self-efficacy - the confidence students had in their ability to participate in exercise regardless of obstacles. For example, students high in exercise self-efficacy would be motivated to go out jogging even in cold weather, or would find some activity to replace jogging if it was raining outside.
A key to boosting exercise self-efficacy is providing opportunities for exercise in attractive, non-threatening settings, according to the researchers. "Colleges need to remove the barriers to students being physically active," Buckworth said. "One example of a barrier may be old, outdated facilities that aren't inviting to students, or not offering exercise opportunities at convenient times."
Another key to encouraging students to be physically active is to target interventions to their level of interest and motivation, Buckworth said. "We need to do different things for a student who is not exercising at all than we do for a student who is exercising some, but not yet in a routine," she said.
However, it is clear that students need to get into the exercise habit before they leave college.
"Most likely, if young adults leave the college campus as sedentary individuals, they will be very unlikely to adopt a physically active lifestyle after entering the workforce," Wallace said.
Other co-authors of the study were Timothy Kirby, associate professor, and W. Michael Sherman, professor, both in sport and exercise sciences at Ohio State.
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, 614-292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu
Journal
Preventive Medicine