Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 543e554
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado
Social control and strenuous exercise among late adolescent college students: Parents versus peers as influence agents John A. Pugliese a, *, Morris A. Okun b a b
Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Dixie State University, St. George, UT 84770, USA Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104, USA
a b s t r a c t Keywords: Social control Physical activity Exercise Late adolescence Peers Parents
In the context of a model of health-related social control, we compared the associations among social control strategies, affective and behavioral reactions, and exercise for parental and peer influence agents. Late adolescent college students (n ¼ 227) completed questionnaires that focused on social control from a parent or a peer who attempted to increase their exercising. Results from this cross-sectional study revealed that most relationships in the model were similar for parent and peer influence agents, however, (a) negative social control was a stronger predictor of reactance among parents than peers; (b) positive affect was a stronger predictor of attempts to change among peers than parents; and (c) positive affect predicted frequency of strenuous exercise only among parents. Decreasing parents’ use of negative social control strategies and increasing adolescents’ positive affective reactions to parental social control agents may be keys to promoting positive lifestyle changes in late adolescence. Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Regular physical activity is essential for healthy development as youth transition from adolescence to adulthood. Nevertheless, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, 2008, 2011), 39% of young adults between 18 and 24 years old do not meet national recommended physical activity levels for adults. The evidence suggests that young adults in college may experience increased weight gain, and reduced physical activity and exercise (Racette, Deusinger, Strube, Highstein, & Deusinger, 2005). Moreover, research has found considerable continuity between physical activity levels in adolescence, and later adulthood (Hallal, Victoria, Azevedo, & Wells, 2006; Perkins, Jacobs, Barber, & Eccles, 2004). Thus, a sedentary and physically inactive lifestyle in college is a risk factor for many chronic diseases during adulthood, including heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). Socialization and exercise in late adolescence Socialization primarily occurs within the context of close relationships, and developmental researchers have traditionally focused on the influence of the family (Brewer & Caporael, 1990; Cooper, 1994). Although parents remain salient as socializers, peers become increasingly important agents of social influence throughout adolescence (Collins & Steinberg, 1998). The shift toward peers yielding more social influence is evident in the increasing amounts of time adolescents spend with peers than
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 435 879 4634. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.A. Pugliese). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.04.008 0140-1971/Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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J.A. Pugliese, M.A. Okun / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 543e554
with parents (Larson & Verma, 2000). Some of the domains in which peers exert influence include personal appearance, interpersonal behavior, entertainment, and leisure activities (Hartup, 1996). Within the exercise and physical activity domain, a few studies have compared the relative influence of peers versus parents. For example, research focusing on social support has consistently found that peer support is more predictive of adolescent physical activity than parental support (Beets, Vogel, Forlaw, Pitetti, & Cardinal, 2006; Prochaska, Rodgers, & Sallis, 2002). Within college-age samples, research has tended to focus solely on the support of peers when examining influences on exercise (Gruber, 2008; Okun et al., 2003). Despite the power of peer norms on youth physical activity (Okun, Karoly, & Lutz, 2002), gaps still remain in our understanding of parental and peer influence on physical activity among college age adolescents. In the context of a health-related model of social control, the present study examines type of influence agent (parent versus peer) as a moderator of the direct and indirect relations between influence strategies and strenuous exercise among late adolescents. The decision to focus only on strenuous exercise was based on the finding that social support and social negativity contribute much more to the prediction of strenuous exercise than to the prediction of moderate or mild exercise (Okun et al., 2003). The model of health-related social control Social control refers to deliberate efforts to influence and regulate the behavior of another person (Rook, 1995; Rook & Pietromonaco, 1987). Social control is conceptually different from social support; the latter focusing on the psychological, physical, and financial help provided by others in an individual’s social network (Lin, Simeone, Ensel, & Kuo, 1979; Sarason, Sarason, & Pierce, 1994). Explicit acts of health-related social control occur when network members attempt to persuade an individual to increase health-enhancing behaviors or reduce health-compromising behaviors. Positive social control strategies involve providing information, positively reinforcing healthy behavior, and showing concern for the recipient. Negative social control strategies, in contrast, involve behaviors such as ridiculing, pressuring, and making an unflattering comparison between the recipient and someone else (Lewis & Rook, 1999). Tucker and Anders (2001) proposed that positive social control is positively related to both positive affect and engaging in positive health behaviors whereas negative social control is associated with both negative affect and negative behavioral reactions such as ignoring the social influence attempts, doing the opposite of what the social influence agent wants, and hiding unhealthy behavior. Furthermore, they proposed that positive affect mediates the association between positive social control and engaging in healthy behaviors and that negative affect mediates the associations between negative social control and taking no action, hiding unhealthy behavior, and increasing the frequency of unhealthy behavior. Several tests of components of this meditational model have demonstrated its utility (Logic, Okun, & Pugliese, 2009; Okun, Huff, August, & Rook, 2007; Tucker, 2002; Tucker & Anders, 2001; Tucker, Elliott, & Klein, 2006; Tucker, Orlando, Elliott, & Klein, 2006). In studies of the consequences of health-related social control, researchers have taken one of two approaches. One approach has been to examine a single social control agent such as spouses or romantic partners (Logic et al., 2009; Okun et al., 2007; Tucker & Anders, 2001). The second approach has been to allow participants to choose their most important social control agent and then to ignore type of social control agent in the analyses (Lewis & Rook, 1999; Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). In contrast, the present study focused on participants who indicated that either parents or peers were currently exerting the most influence on their exercise behavior. The type of social control agent was treated as a moderator in a model examining the relationships among social control strategies, affect, behavioral reactions, and strenuous exercise. Similar to prior research, both the direct and indirect relations between social control strategies and affective reactions on strenuous exercise were examined. The hypothesized mediational model of the association between social control strategies and frequency of strenuous exercise Fig. 1 depicts the hypothesized meditational model that we tested in the present study. Parentechild relationships undergo a developmental transition from a high degree of parental control in childhood, to increasing independence and autonomy exerted by offspring throughout adolescence and emergent adulthood (Collins, 1990). The transition may be characterized by variability in the degree of conflict and tension due to parental control
Positive Social Control
+
Positive Affect
+
Attempts to Change
+ -
Negative Social Control
+
Reactance
-
+
Strenuous Exercise
-
Ignoring Influence Agent
-
Fig. 1. Hypothesized meditational model of the relation between type of influence strategy and frequency of strenuous exercise.
J.A. Pugliese, M.A. Okun / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 543e554
545
(Shanahan, McHale, Osgood, & Crouter, 2007). The interaction between adolescents’ greater sense of autonomy and the use of control by parents may explain why many youth discount parental authority over personal matters throughout adolescence (Fuligni, 1998). Parents’ perceived lack of influence may be magnified in an environment where there are competing influences and consequently, they may utilize increasingly negative strategies if attempts at control are perceived as unsuccessful. Moreover, adolescents are more likely to engage in recreational activities with peers than with parents (Larson & Verma, 1999). Peer recreational experiences provide adolescents with opportunities to share, compare, and judge their own experiences and represent opportunities for social comparison and influence (Paxton, Schutz, Wertheim, & Muir, 1999). Therefore, we predicted that college students would report more negative social control strategies when the influence agent was a parent than a peer. Furthermore, we predicted that college students would report more positive social control strategies when the influence agent was a peer rather than a parent. Numerous studies have demonstrated a positive association between positive social control and positive affect (Logic et al., 2009; Okun et al., 2007; Tucker & Anders, 2001; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). Therefore, it was hypothesized that positive social control will be a significant predictor of positive affect. These studies have also shown a positive association between negative social control and negative affect. Negative social control tactics from agents also have been linked to reactance from the targets (Butterfield & Lewis, 2002). Reactance refers to “an impulse to restore behavioral freedoms that are perceived to have been threatened or lost” (Brehm, 2000, p. 10). Logic et al. (2009) observed that negative social control was strongly correlated with reactance (r ¼ .60). Consequently, we predicted that negative social control would be a significant predictor of reactance. According to Carver and Scheier (1998), positive emotions increase motivation to pursue goals. Consistent with this notion, several researchers have found both domain-specific and cross-domain relationships between affective reactions to social control attempts and the target’s behavioral response to such attempts (Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006). For example, in a path analysis, Tucker, Orlando, et al. (2006) reported a significant, positive direct effect between positive affect and the target’s attempts to change behavior and a negative direct effect with ignoring the agent’s social control attempts. We expected to replicate these findings and hypothesized that positive affect would be a significant, positive predictor of the target’s attempts to change their behavior in response to parent’s [peer’s] social control attempts, and a significant, negative predictor of ignoring a parent’s [peer’s] social control attempt. According to Brehm (1999) individuals in a state of reactance seek to reduce it by engaging in behaviors that will reinstate their freedom. Ignoring or doing nothing in the face of a parent’s [peer’s] social control attempts may represent one strategy for reactance reduction. In a study of dating partners, Logic et al. (2009) found that reactance (but not negative affect) fully mediated the association between negative social control and hiding unhealthy behavior (another potential reactance reduction strategy). Thus, we expected reactance to be a significant, positive predictor of ignoring the social control agent’s attempt to change their exercise behavior and a significant negative predictor of participant’s attempts to change their behavior by increasing the amount they exercise. As originally investigated by Tucker (2002), and in other work with colleagues (Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006), behavioral responses to social control attempts have been the final endogenous variable. Within each study, behavioral responses that are specific to control attempts were investigated, and these responses tend to correlate consistently. For example, ignoring the social control agent’s attempts to change a health behavior has exhibited an inverse relation with attempts to change the health behavior that the social agent is trying to influence, with correlations ranging from .30 to .61 (Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). In the present study, we examined whether these specific behavioral responses are reflected in a global measure of strenuous exercise. If attempts at behavioral change are successful, we expected to find that (a) attempt to change is a significant, positive predictor of a global measure of strenuous exercise and (b) ignoring the social control agent is a significant negative predictor of a global measure of strenuous exercise. To summarize, with respect to the final endogenous variabledstrenuous exercisedwe hypothesized that two associations would be mediated: (a) positive social control / positive affect / attempts to change behavior / strenuous exercise, and (b) negative social control / reactance / ignoring the influence agent / strenuous exercise. With respect to type of influence agent, we expected the model to differ in terms of the magnitude of the mediated relationship between social control and strenuous exercise. Given the central developmental goal of achieving independence from parents during adolescence, it was hypothesized that (a) the mediated relationship between positive social control and strenuous exercise would be significantly stronger for peers than parents, and (b) the mediated relationship between negative social control and strenuous exercise would significantly stronger for parents than peers. We expected these differences in mediated associations to emerge primarily through how youth respond to parental versus peer social control attempts. Therefore, we expected a stronger relationship to emerge between negative social control and reactance when the influence agent was a parent than a peer and conversely, a stronger relationship between positive social control and positive affect when the influence agent was a peer than a parent. In testing the model depicted in Fig. 1, we were aware that results have varied with respect to whether affective reactions fully mediate the relation between social control attempts and behavioral reactions to social control (Okun et al., 2007; Tucker & Anders, 2001) and that cross-domain relations have been observed in several studies (e.g., negative social control exerting a direct effect on positive affect) (Logic et al., 2009; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). Nevertheless, we decided to begin our inferential analyses of frequency of strenuous exercise in late adolescence with a parsimonious model that posited full mediation and no cross-domain associations.
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J.A. Pugliese, M.A. Okun / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 543e554
Finally, the present model represents a sequential mediation model, whereby it is hypothesized that two mediators intervene between social control attempts and the final endogenous variable. The sequence is largely based on the idea that (a) affect serves as a primary mediator between social control and specific behavioral responses to attempts to control behavior, and (b) specific behavioral responses serve as a primary mediator between affective reactions and global behavior. The latter represents how this process is linked to the occurrence of typical or global behavior. To determine whether our hypothesized sequence is supported by the data, we compared the sequence in Fig. 1 to an alternative sequence of the proposed mediators. Specifically, we examined a model in which specific behavioral responses (i.e., attempts to change & ignoring the influence agent) preceded affective reactions. Both our hypothesized model (Fig. 1) and the alternative sequence model were compared in terms of model fit. Method Sample We recruited participants for our study from students enrolled in an introduction to psychology course offered at a large southwestern state university. To fulfill a course requirement, students have an option of participating in research. At the beginning of each semester, students complete a battery of measures. We included a screening item on the batteryd“During the past 3 months, has anyone attempted to get you to exercise more frequently?” Students who reported being the target of an exercise-related social attempt were contacted via e-mail regarding participating in a study of social influence. When students arrived in the laboratory, they read and signed an informed consent form. The sample for the current study consisted of the 227 students who indicated that either a friend or a parent was the most influential agent with respect to exercise. The gender composition of the sample was 56% female and 44% male. Seventy-three percent of the participants were Caucasian, non-Hispanic 11% were Hispanic, 4% were Asian, 3% were Native American, 1% were African American, and the remaining 8% of the participants were of other ethnicities or were of mixed heritage. Over half of the participants were younger than 19 years old (57%), the remaining 43% were between 19 and 22 years old. Measures Social control agents Participants were asked to indicate whether individuals with whom they have various types of relationships (e.g., parent, friend, sibling) tried to get them to exercise more frequently during the past 3 months. Participants then indicated which type of person tried to influence them the most to exercise more frequently during the past 3 months. Relational characteristics Participants were asked three questions about their relationship with the most influential social control agent. Duration of relationship with this person was assessed on an 8-point scale with anchor points ranging from three months (0) to two years or more (7). Frequency of contact with this person in the last 30 days was assessed on a 10-point scale with anchor points ranging from 1e3 days (0) to 28e30 days (9), and duration of contact with this person was assessed on a 10-point scale with anchor points ranging from 1 h a day or less (0) to 22e24 h per day (9). Situational characteristics Participants were asked three questions about exercise-related social control pertaining to the duration, the frequency, and time elapsed since most recent attempt by the most influential social control agent. Duration of social control influence attempts by this person was assessed on a 9-point scale with anchor points ranging from a week or less (0) to one year or longer (8). Recency of influence attempt was assessed on a 7-point scale with anchor points ranging from a week or less 1 (0) to three months (6) and frequency of influence attempt was assessed on a 7-point scale with anchor points ranging from one time (1) to at least once a day (6). Demographic characteristics Participants were asked questions about their sex, ethnicity, and the age and the sex of the most influential agent. Social control strategies Positive and negative social control strategies were measured with 10 items developed by Lewis and Rook (1999). Participants were told to think about how their parent or friend had tried to influence them to change their frequency of exercising during the past three months. Participants rated how true or untrue it was that parents or friends used each strategy to get them to change the exercise behavior. The items were rated on a 5-point scale with anchor points of false (0) and true (4). Six of the items tapped into positive social control (e.g., the influence agent offered to help me change the health behavior) and four of the items tapped into negative social control (e.g., the influence agent tried to make me feel guilty). Scores on these scales were computed by averaging the responses to the appropriate items. In previous studies, estimates of the internal consistency reliability for the positive social control strategies scale were .65 and .66 and estimates of the internal consistency reliability for the negative social control strategies scale were .72 and .73 (Logic et al., 2009; Okun et al., 2007). In
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the present study, the coefficient alphas for the positive and negative social control scales were .62 and .70, respectively, for participants reporting on parental social control and .60 and .65, respectively, for participants reporting on peer social control. Positive affect aroused by social control attempts The positive affect aroused by the most influential agent’s social control attempts were measured using items developed by Lewis and Rook (1999). Participants were instructed to think about how they felt at the time that their friend [parent] was trying to get them to exercise more frequently. Participants rated how strongly they experienced eight different positive emotions (e.g., appreciative) on a 5-point scale with anchor points of very weakly (0) and very strongly (4). Scores on this scale were computed by averaging the responses to the eight items. In previous studies, the estimates of the internal consistency reliability for the positive affect scale were .89 and .91 (Logic et al., 2009; Okun et al., 2007). In the current study, the coefficient alphas for the positive affect scale were .90 for participants reporting on parent social control and .89 for participants reporting on peer social control. Reactance aroused by social control attempts The reactance aroused by the most influential agent’s social control attempts were measured using three items developed by Lewis (1992). Participants were instructed to think about how they reacted to their friend’s [parent’s] attempts to influence them to increase the frequency of exercising. The three items on this scale assessed the extent to which it was true or false that the influence attempts made them feel (a) like they had less control over increasing the frequency of exercising, (b) like they were pretending to do something about the situation so that the influence agent would leave them alone, and (c) angry. Participants made their ratings on a 5-point scale with anchor points of false (0) and true (4). Scores on this scale were computed by averaging the responses to the three items. In a previous study, the internal consistency reliability for this scale was estimated to be .72, and scores on the reactance scale correlated .62 with scores on a measure of negative affect (Logic et al., 2009). In the current study, the coefficient alphas for the reactance scale were .83 for participants reporting on parent social control and .80 for participants reporting on peer social control. Behavioral responses to social control We utilized two items developed by Tucker (2002) to assess the extent to which participants attempt to change their behavior or ignore the social influence agent. Participants’ attempts to change were assess by asking the following question, “When the parent [peer] has attempted to get you to increase the frequency of exercising, how often have done what the influence agent asked you to do?” Higher scores indicate greater attempts to change their current levels of exercise. Similarly, the extent to which participants ignored the social influence agent were assessed by asking, “When the parent [peer] has attempted to get you to increase the frequency of exercising, how often have you ignored the influence agent or done nothing?” The response scale for both items was based on a 4-point scale with anchor points of never (0) and often (3). Tucker and Anders (2001) reported a coefficient alpha of .54 for ratings of spousal attempts to influence three different health behaviors. Attempt to change has been found to be correlated .30 with ignoring social control attempts in previous research examining behavioral responses to social control (Tucker, 2002). Ignoring social control attempts has been found to be correlated .33 and .47 with doing the opposite of what the social control agent wants (Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006). The correlation between ignoring social control attempts and hiding an unhealthy behavior has ranged from .06 to .24 (Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). The present study focuses on the extent to which adolescents attempt to change (i.e., engage) and ignore the influence agent.
Table 1 Differences between participants identifying parents and peers as influence agents on relational characteristics, situational characteristics, and the main study variables. Variable
Relationship characteristics Duration of contact Days in contact Time spent in contact Situational characteristics Duration of influence attempts Recency of influence attempts Frequency of influence attempts Main study variables Frequency of strenuous exercise Attempt to change Ignore influence agent Reactance Positive affect Negative social control Positive social control
Parents (n ¼ 107)
Peers (n ¼ 120)
t
p
2.76 3.11 2.61
7.45 0.46 2.90
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado
Social control and strenuous exercise among late adolescent college students: Parents versus peers as influence agents John A. Pugliese a, *, Morris A. Okun b a b
Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Dixie State University, St. George, UT 84770, USA Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104, USA
a b s t r a c t Keywords: Social control Physical activity Exercise Late adolescence Peers Parents
In the context of a model of health-related social control, we compared the associations among social control strategies, affective and behavioral reactions, and exercise for parental and peer influence agents. Late adolescent college students (n ¼ 227) completed questionnaires that focused on social control from a parent or a peer who attempted to increase their exercising. Results from this cross-sectional study revealed that most relationships in the model were similar for parent and peer influence agents, however, (a) negative social control was a stronger predictor of reactance among parents than peers; (b) positive affect was a stronger predictor of attempts to change among peers than parents; and (c) positive affect predicted frequency of strenuous exercise only among parents. Decreasing parents’ use of negative social control strategies and increasing adolescents’ positive affective reactions to parental social control agents may be keys to promoting positive lifestyle changes in late adolescence. Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Regular physical activity is essential for healthy development as youth transition from adolescence to adulthood. Nevertheless, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, 2008, 2011), 39% of young adults between 18 and 24 years old do not meet national recommended physical activity levels for adults. The evidence suggests that young adults in college may experience increased weight gain, and reduced physical activity and exercise (Racette, Deusinger, Strube, Highstein, & Deusinger, 2005). Moreover, research has found considerable continuity between physical activity levels in adolescence, and later adulthood (Hallal, Victoria, Azevedo, & Wells, 2006; Perkins, Jacobs, Barber, & Eccles, 2004). Thus, a sedentary and physically inactive lifestyle in college is a risk factor for many chronic diseases during adulthood, including heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). Socialization and exercise in late adolescence Socialization primarily occurs within the context of close relationships, and developmental researchers have traditionally focused on the influence of the family (Brewer & Caporael, 1990; Cooper, 1994). Although parents remain salient as socializers, peers become increasingly important agents of social influence throughout adolescence (Collins & Steinberg, 1998). The shift toward peers yielding more social influence is evident in the increasing amounts of time adolescents spend with peers than
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 435 879 4634. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.A. Pugliese). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.04.008 0140-1971/Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
544
J.A. Pugliese, M.A. Okun / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 543e554
with parents (Larson & Verma, 2000). Some of the domains in which peers exert influence include personal appearance, interpersonal behavior, entertainment, and leisure activities (Hartup, 1996). Within the exercise and physical activity domain, a few studies have compared the relative influence of peers versus parents. For example, research focusing on social support has consistently found that peer support is more predictive of adolescent physical activity than parental support (Beets, Vogel, Forlaw, Pitetti, & Cardinal, 2006; Prochaska, Rodgers, & Sallis, 2002). Within college-age samples, research has tended to focus solely on the support of peers when examining influences on exercise (Gruber, 2008; Okun et al., 2003). Despite the power of peer norms on youth physical activity (Okun, Karoly, & Lutz, 2002), gaps still remain in our understanding of parental and peer influence on physical activity among college age adolescents. In the context of a health-related model of social control, the present study examines type of influence agent (parent versus peer) as a moderator of the direct and indirect relations between influence strategies and strenuous exercise among late adolescents. The decision to focus only on strenuous exercise was based on the finding that social support and social negativity contribute much more to the prediction of strenuous exercise than to the prediction of moderate or mild exercise (Okun et al., 2003). The model of health-related social control Social control refers to deliberate efforts to influence and regulate the behavior of another person (Rook, 1995; Rook & Pietromonaco, 1987). Social control is conceptually different from social support; the latter focusing on the psychological, physical, and financial help provided by others in an individual’s social network (Lin, Simeone, Ensel, & Kuo, 1979; Sarason, Sarason, & Pierce, 1994). Explicit acts of health-related social control occur when network members attempt to persuade an individual to increase health-enhancing behaviors or reduce health-compromising behaviors. Positive social control strategies involve providing information, positively reinforcing healthy behavior, and showing concern for the recipient. Negative social control strategies, in contrast, involve behaviors such as ridiculing, pressuring, and making an unflattering comparison between the recipient and someone else (Lewis & Rook, 1999). Tucker and Anders (2001) proposed that positive social control is positively related to both positive affect and engaging in positive health behaviors whereas negative social control is associated with both negative affect and negative behavioral reactions such as ignoring the social influence attempts, doing the opposite of what the social influence agent wants, and hiding unhealthy behavior. Furthermore, they proposed that positive affect mediates the association between positive social control and engaging in healthy behaviors and that negative affect mediates the associations between negative social control and taking no action, hiding unhealthy behavior, and increasing the frequency of unhealthy behavior. Several tests of components of this meditational model have demonstrated its utility (Logic, Okun, & Pugliese, 2009; Okun, Huff, August, & Rook, 2007; Tucker, 2002; Tucker & Anders, 2001; Tucker, Elliott, & Klein, 2006; Tucker, Orlando, Elliott, & Klein, 2006). In studies of the consequences of health-related social control, researchers have taken one of two approaches. One approach has been to examine a single social control agent such as spouses or romantic partners (Logic et al., 2009; Okun et al., 2007; Tucker & Anders, 2001). The second approach has been to allow participants to choose their most important social control agent and then to ignore type of social control agent in the analyses (Lewis & Rook, 1999; Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). In contrast, the present study focused on participants who indicated that either parents or peers were currently exerting the most influence on their exercise behavior. The type of social control agent was treated as a moderator in a model examining the relationships among social control strategies, affect, behavioral reactions, and strenuous exercise. Similar to prior research, both the direct and indirect relations between social control strategies and affective reactions on strenuous exercise were examined. The hypothesized mediational model of the association between social control strategies and frequency of strenuous exercise Fig. 1 depicts the hypothesized meditational model that we tested in the present study. Parentechild relationships undergo a developmental transition from a high degree of parental control in childhood, to increasing independence and autonomy exerted by offspring throughout adolescence and emergent adulthood (Collins, 1990). The transition may be characterized by variability in the degree of conflict and tension due to parental control
Positive Social Control
+
Positive Affect
+
Attempts to Change
+ -
Negative Social Control
+
Reactance
-
+
Strenuous Exercise
-
Ignoring Influence Agent
-
Fig. 1. Hypothesized meditational model of the relation between type of influence strategy and frequency of strenuous exercise.
J.A. Pugliese, M.A. Okun / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 543e554
545
(Shanahan, McHale, Osgood, & Crouter, 2007). The interaction between adolescents’ greater sense of autonomy and the use of control by parents may explain why many youth discount parental authority over personal matters throughout adolescence (Fuligni, 1998). Parents’ perceived lack of influence may be magnified in an environment where there are competing influences and consequently, they may utilize increasingly negative strategies if attempts at control are perceived as unsuccessful. Moreover, adolescents are more likely to engage in recreational activities with peers than with parents (Larson & Verma, 1999). Peer recreational experiences provide adolescents with opportunities to share, compare, and judge their own experiences and represent opportunities for social comparison and influence (Paxton, Schutz, Wertheim, & Muir, 1999). Therefore, we predicted that college students would report more negative social control strategies when the influence agent was a parent than a peer. Furthermore, we predicted that college students would report more positive social control strategies when the influence agent was a peer rather than a parent. Numerous studies have demonstrated a positive association between positive social control and positive affect (Logic et al., 2009; Okun et al., 2007; Tucker & Anders, 2001; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). Therefore, it was hypothesized that positive social control will be a significant predictor of positive affect. These studies have also shown a positive association between negative social control and negative affect. Negative social control tactics from agents also have been linked to reactance from the targets (Butterfield & Lewis, 2002). Reactance refers to “an impulse to restore behavioral freedoms that are perceived to have been threatened or lost” (Brehm, 2000, p. 10). Logic et al. (2009) observed that negative social control was strongly correlated with reactance (r ¼ .60). Consequently, we predicted that negative social control would be a significant predictor of reactance. According to Carver and Scheier (1998), positive emotions increase motivation to pursue goals. Consistent with this notion, several researchers have found both domain-specific and cross-domain relationships between affective reactions to social control attempts and the target’s behavioral response to such attempts (Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006). For example, in a path analysis, Tucker, Orlando, et al. (2006) reported a significant, positive direct effect between positive affect and the target’s attempts to change behavior and a negative direct effect with ignoring the agent’s social control attempts. We expected to replicate these findings and hypothesized that positive affect would be a significant, positive predictor of the target’s attempts to change their behavior in response to parent’s [peer’s] social control attempts, and a significant, negative predictor of ignoring a parent’s [peer’s] social control attempt. According to Brehm (1999) individuals in a state of reactance seek to reduce it by engaging in behaviors that will reinstate their freedom. Ignoring or doing nothing in the face of a parent’s [peer’s] social control attempts may represent one strategy for reactance reduction. In a study of dating partners, Logic et al. (2009) found that reactance (but not negative affect) fully mediated the association between negative social control and hiding unhealthy behavior (another potential reactance reduction strategy). Thus, we expected reactance to be a significant, positive predictor of ignoring the social control agent’s attempt to change their exercise behavior and a significant negative predictor of participant’s attempts to change their behavior by increasing the amount they exercise. As originally investigated by Tucker (2002), and in other work with colleagues (Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006), behavioral responses to social control attempts have been the final endogenous variable. Within each study, behavioral responses that are specific to control attempts were investigated, and these responses tend to correlate consistently. For example, ignoring the social control agent’s attempts to change a health behavior has exhibited an inverse relation with attempts to change the health behavior that the social agent is trying to influence, with correlations ranging from .30 to .61 (Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). In the present study, we examined whether these specific behavioral responses are reflected in a global measure of strenuous exercise. If attempts at behavioral change are successful, we expected to find that (a) attempt to change is a significant, positive predictor of a global measure of strenuous exercise and (b) ignoring the social control agent is a significant negative predictor of a global measure of strenuous exercise. To summarize, with respect to the final endogenous variabledstrenuous exercisedwe hypothesized that two associations would be mediated: (a) positive social control / positive affect / attempts to change behavior / strenuous exercise, and (b) negative social control / reactance / ignoring the influence agent / strenuous exercise. With respect to type of influence agent, we expected the model to differ in terms of the magnitude of the mediated relationship between social control and strenuous exercise. Given the central developmental goal of achieving independence from parents during adolescence, it was hypothesized that (a) the mediated relationship between positive social control and strenuous exercise would be significantly stronger for peers than parents, and (b) the mediated relationship between negative social control and strenuous exercise would significantly stronger for parents than peers. We expected these differences in mediated associations to emerge primarily through how youth respond to parental versus peer social control attempts. Therefore, we expected a stronger relationship to emerge between negative social control and reactance when the influence agent was a parent than a peer and conversely, a stronger relationship between positive social control and positive affect when the influence agent was a peer than a parent. In testing the model depicted in Fig. 1, we were aware that results have varied with respect to whether affective reactions fully mediate the relation between social control attempts and behavioral reactions to social control (Okun et al., 2007; Tucker & Anders, 2001) and that cross-domain relations have been observed in several studies (e.g., negative social control exerting a direct effect on positive affect) (Logic et al., 2009; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). Nevertheless, we decided to begin our inferential analyses of frequency of strenuous exercise in late adolescence with a parsimonious model that posited full mediation and no cross-domain associations.
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Finally, the present model represents a sequential mediation model, whereby it is hypothesized that two mediators intervene between social control attempts and the final endogenous variable. The sequence is largely based on the idea that (a) affect serves as a primary mediator between social control and specific behavioral responses to attempts to control behavior, and (b) specific behavioral responses serve as a primary mediator between affective reactions and global behavior. The latter represents how this process is linked to the occurrence of typical or global behavior. To determine whether our hypothesized sequence is supported by the data, we compared the sequence in Fig. 1 to an alternative sequence of the proposed mediators. Specifically, we examined a model in which specific behavioral responses (i.e., attempts to change & ignoring the influence agent) preceded affective reactions. Both our hypothesized model (Fig. 1) and the alternative sequence model were compared in terms of model fit. Method Sample We recruited participants for our study from students enrolled in an introduction to psychology course offered at a large southwestern state university. To fulfill a course requirement, students have an option of participating in research. At the beginning of each semester, students complete a battery of measures. We included a screening item on the batteryd“During the past 3 months, has anyone attempted to get you to exercise more frequently?” Students who reported being the target of an exercise-related social attempt were contacted via e-mail regarding participating in a study of social influence. When students arrived in the laboratory, they read and signed an informed consent form. The sample for the current study consisted of the 227 students who indicated that either a friend or a parent was the most influential agent with respect to exercise. The gender composition of the sample was 56% female and 44% male. Seventy-three percent of the participants were Caucasian, non-Hispanic 11% were Hispanic, 4% were Asian, 3% were Native American, 1% were African American, and the remaining 8% of the participants were of other ethnicities or were of mixed heritage. Over half of the participants were younger than 19 years old (57%), the remaining 43% were between 19 and 22 years old. Measures Social control agents Participants were asked to indicate whether individuals with whom they have various types of relationships (e.g., parent, friend, sibling) tried to get them to exercise more frequently during the past 3 months. Participants then indicated which type of person tried to influence them the most to exercise more frequently during the past 3 months. Relational characteristics Participants were asked three questions about their relationship with the most influential social control agent. Duration of relationship with this person was assessed on an 8-point scale with anchor points ranging from three months (0) to two years or more (7). Frequency of contact with this person in the last 30 days was assessed on a 10-point scale with anchor points ranging from 1e3 days (0) to 28e30 days (9), and duration of contact with this person was assessed on a 10-point scale with anchor points ranging from 1 h a day or less (0) to 22e24 h per day (9). Situational characteristics Participants were asked three questions about exercise-related social control pertaining to the duration, the frequency, and time elapsed since most recent attempt by the most influential social control agent. Duration of social control influence attempts by this person was assessed on a 9-point scale with anchor points ranging from a week or less (0) to one year or longer (8). Recency of influence attempt was assessed on a 7-point scale with anchor points ranging from a week or less 1 (0) to three months (6) and frequency of influence attempt was assessed on a 7-point scale with anchor points ranging from one time (1) to at least once a day (6). Demographic characteristics Participants were asked questions about their sex, ethnicity, and the age and the sex of the most influential agent. Social control strategies Positive and negative social control strategies were measured with 10 items developed by Lewis and Rook (1999). Participants were told to think about how their parent or friend had tried to influence them to change their frequency of exercising during the past three months. Participants rated how true or untrue it was that parents or friends used each strategy to get them to change the exercise behavior. The items were rated on a 5-point scale with anchor points of false (0) and true (4). Six of the items tapped into positive social control (e.g., the influence agent offered to help me change the health behavior) and four of the items tapped into negative social control (e.g., the influence agent tried to make me feel guilty). Scores on these scales were computed by averaging the responses to the appropriate items. In previous studies, estimates of the internal consistency reliability for the positive social control strategies scale were .65 and .66 and estimates of the internal consistency reliability for the negative social control strategies scale were .72 and .73 (Logic et al., 2009; Okun et al., 2007). In
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the present study, the coefficient alphas for the positive and negative social control scales were .62 and .70, respectively, for participants reporting on parental social control and .60 and .65, respectively, for participants reporting on peer social control. Positive affect aroused by social control attempts The positive affect aroused by the most influential agent’s social control attempts were measured using items developed by Lewis and Rook (1999). Participants were instructed to think about how they felt at the time that their friend [parent] was trying to get them to exercise more frequently. Participants rated how strongly they experienced eight different positive emotions (e.g., appreciative) on a 5-point scale with anchor points of very weakly (0) and very strongly (4). Scores on this scale were computed by averaging the responses to the eight items. In previous studies, the estimates of the internal consistency reliability for the positive affect scale were .89 and .91 (Logic et al., 2009; Okun et al., 2007). In the current study, the coefficient alphas for the positive affect scale were .90 for participants reporting on parent social control and .89 for participants reporting on peer social control. Reactance aroused by social control attempts The reactance aroused by the most influential agent’s social control attempts were measured using three items developed by Lewis (1992). Participants were instructed to think about how they reacted to their friend’s [parent’s] attempts to influence them to increase the frequency of exercising. The three items on this scale assessed the extent to which it was true or false that the influence attempts made them feel (a) like they had less control over increasing the frequency of exercising, (b) like they were pretending to do something about the situation so that the influence agent would leave them alone, and (c) angry. Participants made their ratings on a 5-point scale with anchor points of false (0) and true (4). Scores on this scale were computed by averaging the responses to the three items. In a previous study, the internal consistency reliability for this scale was estimated to be .72, and scores on the reactance scale correlated .62 with scores on a measure of negative affect (Logic et al., 2009). In the current study, the coefficient alphas for the reactance scale were .83 for participants reporting on parent social control and .80 for participants reporting on peer social control. Behavioral responses to social control We utilized two items developed by Tucker (2002) to assess the extent to which participants attempt to change their behavior or ignore the social influence agent. Participants’ attempts to change were assess by asking the following question, “When the parent [peer] has attempted to get you to increase the frequency of exercising, how often have done what the influence agent asked you to do?” Higher scores indicate greater attempts to change their current levels of exercise. Similarly, the extent to which participants ignored the social influence agent were assessed by asking, “When the parent [peer] has attempted to get you to increase the frequency of exercising, how often have you ignored the influence agent or done nothing?” The response scale for both items was based on a 4-point scale with anchor points of never (0) and often (3). Tucker and Anders (2001) reported a coefficient alpha of .54 for ratings of spousal attempts to influence three different health behaviors. Attempt to change has been found to be correlated .30 with ignoring social control attempts in previous research examining behavioral responses to social control (Tucker, 2002). Ignoring social control attempts has been found to be correlated .33 and .47 with doing the opposite of what the social control agent wants (Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006). The correlation between ignoring social control attempts and hiding an unhealthy behavior has ranged from .06 to .24 (Tucker, 2002; Tucker, Elliott, et al., 2006; Tucker, Orlando, et al., 2006). The present study focuses on the extent to which adolescents attempt to change (i.e., engage) and ignore the influence agent.
Table 1 Differences between participants identifying parents and peers as influence agents on relational characteristics, situational characteristics, and the main study variables. Variable
Relationship characteristics Duration of contact Days in contact Time spent in contact Situational characteristics Duration of influence attempts Recency of influence attempts Frequency of influence attempts Main study variables Frequency of strenuous exercise Attempt to change Ignore influence agent Reactance Positive affect Negative social control Positive social control
Parents (n ¼ 107)
Peers (n ¼ 120)
t
p
2.76 3.11 2.61
7.45 0.46 2.90
