Patterns of physical activity-related health competence: stability over time and associations with subjective health indicators

Abstract

Objective If individuals want to integrate health-enhancing physical activity in their everyday life, they need specific competences. This person-oriented study aimed to: 1) Identify patterns of physical activity-related health competence, 2) examine how structurally and individually stable these patterns are over 4 months and 3) test how changes in patterns are associated with changes in subjective health indicators. Materials and methods A total of 769 individuals (82% women, Mage = 27 years) were recruited from exercise courses offered by university sport. Four facets of physical activity-related health competence (control competence for physical training, physical activity-specific affect regulation, self-determined motivation for exercise, physical activity-specific self-control) and subjective health (subjective vitality and perceived fitness) were measured twice. Patterns were identified using latent profile analysis. Their stability and associations with subjective health changes were examined with latent transition analyses and a configural frequency analysis. Results Seven patterns of physical activity-related health competence were identified. Besides three level patterns, four shape patterns were found with differing ratings across the studied variables (e.g. average values for control competence for physical training, self-determined motivation and physical activity-specific self-control, but a high level in physical activity affect regulation). These patterns proved to be structurally stable over time. In all, 72% of the individuals stayed in the same pattern, whereas 20% moved to a more and 8% to a less competent pattern. Changes in patterns are linked to change in subjective vitality and perceived fitness. Conclusion The results presented here demonstrate the added value of using a person-oriented approach to investigate development of physical activity-related health competence. Furthermore, they generate knowledge for designing tailored interventions.

Competencies for a Healthy Physically Active Lifestyle: Second-Order Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling

“…From the perspective of behavioral relatedness, technically named criterion validity, it would be necessary to relate the latent second-order factors or sub-competence scores to pivotal outcomes of HEPA ( Figure 1 ). As outcomes, this would, for example, include the volume of PA performed (Sudeck and Pfeifer, 2016 ; Carl et al, 2020b ) or, covering qualitative and health-related aspects of HEPA, parameters such as positive affect (Sudeck et al, 2018 ), perceived vitality (Schmid et al, 2020 ), or subjective health (Carl et al, 2020b ). Nevertheless, focusing the internal structure of the framework, the present second-order approach could substantiate the integrative and interrelated nature of the PAHCO model.…”

“…Another example is the assertion that at least a minimum amount of task-specific self-efficacy is necessary to master given locomotor tasks (movement competence). The PAHCO model has been the subject of some publications in the Germanspeaking area (Wolters et al, 2016;Gawlik et al, 2018;Hecht, 2020;Schmid et al, 2020) and on the international level (e.g., Sudeck et al, 2018;Carl et al, 2020a;Haible et al, 2020). Also, this framework has already served as the theoretical foundation for interventions and programs (Ley et al, 2014;Streber and Pfeifer, 2018;Bruland et al, 2019;Haible et al, 2019).…”

Competencies for a healthy physically active lifestyle: Second-order analysis and multidimensional scaling

“…From the perspective of behavioral-relatedness, technically named criterion validity, it would be necessary to relate the latent second-order factors or sub-competence scores to pivotal outcomes of HEPA ( Figure 1). As outcomes, this would, for example, include the volume of PA performed (Sudeck and Pfeifer, 2016; in press a) or, covering qualitative and health-related aspects of HEPA, parameters such as positive affect (Sudeck et al, 2018), perceived vitality (Schmid et al, 2020), or subjective health (Carl et al, in press a).…”

“…The PAHCO model has been the subject of some publications in the German-speaking area (e.g., Sudeck and Pfeifer, 2016;Pfeifer et al, 2013;Peters et al, 2013;Schmid et al, 2020;Gawlik et al, 2018) and on the international level (e.g., Carl et al, 2020;Carl et al, in press b;Sudeck et al, 2018;Haible et al, 2020). Also, this framework has already served as the theoretical foundation for interventions and programs (e.g., Haible et al, 2019;Bruland et al, 2019;Geidl et al, 2017;Ley et al, 2014;Streber and Pfeifer, 2018).…”

Auswahl einer passenden Aktivität: Entwicklung und Validierung eines Fragebogens zur motivationalen Kompetenz in Bewegung und Sport

“…In addition, motivational competence is closely linked to physical activity-related health competence (PAHCO; Schmid, Haible, & Sudeck, 2020;Sudeck & Pfeifer, 2016). PAHCO refers to the competencies required to lead a healthy, physically active lifestyle.…”