Background Risk for cardiovascular disease is particularly high among women in midlife (ages 40–60). Moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (PA) can protect against risk during this time, and research is needed to understand contributors to PA motivation and behavior in daily life. Purpose This study used ecological momentary assessment to examine: (a) within-person associations between social interactions (both quantity and quality) and PA outcomes (motivation and behavior) among women in midlife, and (b) variability in within-person associations across days. Methods Women ages 40–60 with one or more cardiovascular disease risk conditions (e.g., hypertension; n = 75; MAge = 51.6 years, MBMI = 34.0 kg/m2) wore waistband accelerometers and completed five surveys per day for 10 days. Results Controlling for social interactions overall, at times when women reported a higher number of positive interactions, they reported higher PA motivation; this association was negative for both the number and valence of negative interactions. At times when women experienced a higher number of interactions overall, they engaged in fewer subsequent minutes of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity PA, though reports of positive and negative interactions were not associated with moderate-to-vigorous-intensity PA behavior. Importantly, the direction of these within-person associations differed between days of observation (positive associations on ~50% of days and negative associations on ~50% of days). Conclusions Findings show that social interactions influence PA motivation and behavior among women in midlife but that these influences are inconsistent, suggesting the need for careful consideration of how to engage social interactions to promote PA in this group.
Cannabis use on college campuses is common, with more than half of students reporting use within the past year (Schulenberg, et. al, 2020). Additionally, a 2017 study found that approximately 90% of past-month cannabis users reported having experienced at least one negative consequence (Pearson, Liese, & Dvorak, 2017). Numerous studies have evaluated the association between conformity motives and cannabis-related consequences such as driving under the influence or poor academic performance (Glodosky & Cuttler, 2019; Lee, Neighbors, & Woods, 2007). Research suggests that while those users who endorse conformity motives generally report lower use and frequency (Zvolensky et al., 2007), they may be at high risk of experiencing negative cannabis-related consequences (Buckner, Walukevich, & Lewis, 2019). One construct that has been shown to predict lower cannabis-related problems in young adults is refusal self-efficacy (Papinczak, Connor, Harnett, & Gullo, 2018; Hayaki et al., 2011). Refusal self-efficacy in relation to cannabis use is one’s belief that they will be able to resist, refuse, or turn down cannabis when offered. As refusal self-efficacy is prominent in conformity-driven situations, it is important to understand how refusal self-efficacy may mediate the relationship between conformity motives and cannabis-related consequences. As this relationship has not yet been tested we aim to examine this mediational relationship. We hypothesized that refusal self-efficacy mediates the relationship between motives and cannabis-related problems, such that refusal self-efficacy explains the preexisting relationship between conformity motives and problems related to cannabis use. Participants included 567 undergraduate students (49.02% White, 77.21% female). Cannabis use prevalence among the sample was 61.25% lifetime, 36.53% within the past 6 months, and 28.92% within the past 30 days. The relationship between conformity motives, refusal self-efficacy, and problems was examined using structural equation modeling in STATA Version 15.1. Results found that The relationship between conformity motives and cannabis-related problems was partially mediated by cannabis refusal self-efficacy. The direct path from conformity motives to problems was significant and positive (B = .167, SE = .063), indicating a competitive mediation (Zhao, Lynch, & Chen, 2010). The standardized regression coefficient between conformity motives and refusal self-efficacy was statistically significant (B = -.337, SE = .053), as was the standardized regression coefficient between refusal self-efficacy and cannabis-related problems (B = -.411, SE = .06). We tested the significance of the indirect effect using bootstrapping procedures. Unstandardized indirect effects were computed for each of the 5,000 bootstrapped samples. The bootstrapped unstandardized indirect effect was .357, and the 95% confidence interval ranged from .180, .533. Thus, the indirect effect was statistically significant. This indicates that part of the reason that those with conformity motives have cannabis-related problems is due to their inability to refuse cannabis when offered. However, due to the fact that this was a partial mediation, there are other potential mediators to be accounted for, such as social anxiety (Buckner & Schmidt, 2008).
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