Abstract
Purpose:
This study investigates the possible association between adolescent friendship networks and perceived physical activity skill competence in a summer care program.
Design:
Adolescents participated in researcher-administered surveys at the start (T1) and end (T2) of summer.
Setting:
Adolescents at a Boys & Girls Club were sampled.
Sample:
Adolescents (age 8-12) completed researcher-administered surveys at T1 (n = 100; µ age = 9.9 years; 47% male; 55% Black) and T2 (n = 77; µ age = 9.8 years; 51% male; 49% Black).
Measures:
Perceived skill competence was measured by asking adolescents to rate how good they felt they were at physical activity at the club. Adolescents were also asked to provide names of up to 5 peers whom they hung around with, talked to, and did things with the most while at the club.
Analysis:
Linear network autocorrelation models were used to determine network effects or clustering of perceived physical activity skill competence within the club.
Results:
There were significant network effects for adolescent perceived skill competency scores at T1 (β = 0.05, p < 0.01) and T2 (β = 0.05, p = 0.02), indicating adolescent perceived skill competence scores were associated with those of their friends.
Conclusions:
Practitioners may wish to encourage the use of group or collaborative skill competency improvement activities as well as possibly pairing adolescents with differing skill competencies to foster improvement and possible diffusion of perceived skill competency.
Keywords
Purpose
Perceived physical skill competency, or confidence in one’s ability to perform movements related to physical activities, is significantly associated with increased adolescent physical activity (PA). 1 In this way, physical skill competency is similar to self-efficacy, but further narrows the definition to specify skills related to physical activity. 2 Fostering physical skill competency could translate to improved health and wellbeing, 3 which may be important given less than a third of adolescents report engaging in the recommended amount of PA. 4 Adolescents are often confronted by a lack of structured PA opportunities during summer. 5 Fortunately, summer care programs, which are attended by 14.3 million adolescents each summer, 6 are positioned to provide structure and PA promotion during this crucial time. 7
Adolescents tend to make friends with others who are similar to themselves in PA behavior as well as become more similar to their friends regarding PA behavior over time. 8 While literature suggests adolescent PA behaviors are impacted by network influences, 8 less is known about network influences on perceived skill competency. One way to understand peer influences on perceived skill competency is social network analysis (SNA). SNA is a set of theories and methodologies used to understand social influences related to an individual’s behaviors and beliefs by identifying and interpreting connections between individuals. 9 This article aims to determine whether perceived skill competency in adolescents is associated with those they interacted with while at summer care programs.
Methods
Design
Adolescents enrolled at a summer care program participated in researcher administered surveys at the start (T1) and end (T2) of summer (8 weeks between each time point). Parents of participants were provided a detailed information sheet about the study and given the opportunity to decline their adolescent’s participation. Additionally, adolescents were informed of the study and provided written assent forms in order to participate. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the referent university.
Sample
Measures
Adolescents self-reported age, sex, race, and ethnicity.
Perceived skill competency
Perceived skill competency was measured by a 1-item adaptation of the PlaySELF physical literacy assessment form. 10 In its original form, the PlaySELF assesses an adolescent’s perceived skill competence in a variety of settings. In this study, adolescents were asked “how good do you feel you are at physical activities at the Boys & Girls Club.” Adolescents could respond “never tried,” “not so good,” “okay,” “very good,” or “excellent,” which were then coded 0-4 respectively. At the time of publication, no published validation studies were found for single item use; however, this specificity was used to detail perceived skill competency specific to the environment/setting of the summer care program.
Network data
Adolescents reported names of up to 5 peers at the Boys & Girls Club with whom they interacted with the most by selecting names from a list of all adolescents at the Club. These nominations were used to create 2 directed networks (1 for each time point, each accounting for 1 and 2-way/reciprocal social ties) connecting the adolescents at the program. This approach to generating networks has been used repeatedly in the literature 8,9 and provided a representation of the social connections present at the Boys & Girls Club.
Analysis
Means, standard deviations, frequencies, and percentages for demographics were calculated using SPSS v. 25. 11 Linear network autocorrelation models (LNAM) were used to determine if an adolescent’s perceived skill competency score was associated with that of their friends. LNAM is a form of regression that specifically deals with the interdependent nature of network measures and determines effect of network influences and connections on explaining variance in specific outcome variables. 12 LNAMs were conducted using statnet package in R Studio. 13
Results
A total of 100 adolescents (53% female) were surveyed at T1 and 77 (49.4% female) were surveyed at T2. Average age for adolescents did not significantly vary between T1 (9.94 years [SD = 1.34]) and T2 (9.83 years [SD = 1.46]). Table 1 describes full sample characteristics at both time points.
Sample Characteristics.
*Multiple Race = combination of any 2 or more races.
Network Autocorrelation Modeling
Significant LNAMs displayed network effects on perceived skill competency. Adolescent perceived skill competency was significantly related to that of peers they spent time with while at the program for both time points (β = 0.05, p < 0.01; β = 0.05, p = 0.02). Additionally, age of the adolescent was a significant factor at both time points (β = 0.28, p < 0.01; β = 0.25, p < 0.01), with older adolescents being more likely to report greater skill competency. Table 2 provides results for linear network autocorrelation models for both time points.
Linear Network Autocorrelation Model Results.
Note: * significant at p < 0.05, which is determined by the estimate being double the standard error; SE = standard error; Network Effects = a measure of perceived skill scores being associated with those of adolescents who are connected in the network.
Discussion
Summary
Adolescent perceived physical skill competency scores showed significant network effects at both the beginning and end of summer. Therefore, adolescents’ perceived skill scores were similar to the peers they reported spending the most time with compared to adolescents with whom they did not interact. These findings are consistent with previous literature regarding network effects on adolescent PA while making the novel contribution regarding social influence on perceived skill competency at summer care programs. 8 While this study demonstrated a propensity for adolescents to connect with similar others based on skill competency, it is possible other factors (e.g., attitudes, athleticism, involvement in extra-curricular activities) could be underlying mechanisms driving these similarities. Future research could further parse out why adolescents tend to connect with peers who have similar perceived skill competency.
While continued research will be helpful in making more concrete programmatic recommendations, program coordinators should consider adding programmatic elements that promote collaborative skill building exercises and reduce more competitive-style activities. These collaborative exercises may enlist learning new skills together or providing opportunities for adolescents to teach others instead of competing against one another. Less competitive environments may also reduce bullying among adolescents. In creating more collaborative connections between adolescents, coordinators may assist the diffusion of skill competency through social influence and social connections at these programs. 14 In turn, this balance of perceived physical skill competency may increase activity for all adolescents. 1
Limitations
Only 1 adapted item was used to assess perceived skill competency in order to be context specific to the program and reduce burden on survey respondents. Further research may wish to use a full skill competency assessment to address global skill competency. Additionally, these results represent the network effects of this program, and generalizability to other networks is limited. While every effort was made to recruit all adolescents at the program between 8-12 years old to represent the whole network structure at each time point, several adolescents from T1 did not participate in T2. Data was not collected regarding loss to follow-up, but adolescents may have stopped attending the program or refused to participate in the second collection. LNAM procedures are robust to missing data but it is possible that there were missing individuals or connections in this study.
Significance
Adolescents’ perceived physical skill competency scores were more similar to the peers they interacted with most often at the program compared to those they did not. This result adds to the literature of peer effects on PA behaviors and beliefs. Practitioners should consider the use of group or collaborative skill competency improvement activities, and possibly pairing adolescents with differing skill competencies during skill-associated activities.
So What?
What is already known on this topic?
Perceived skill competency is positively associated with physical activity among adolescents.
Adolescent physical activity has been known to be impacted by social network influences.
What does this article add?
Perceived skill competency among adolescents at a summer care program was associated with that of their friends. This means that adolescents who are friends at these programs tend to have similar levels of perceived physical activity skill competence. This finding adds to the significance of social influence in fostering skill competency and promoting physical activity.
What are the implications for health promotion practice or research?
Practitioners may benefit from the use of group or collaborative skill competency improvement activities, as well as possibly pairing adolescents with differing skill competencies. These strategies could foster the diffusion of competencies, and as a result, improve physical activity across adolescents.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
This study was approved by the Baylor Institutional Review Board ID# 1359500.
Author Contributions
Mr. Prochnow was the project coordinator, collected data, and lead the manuscript draft. Dr. Patterson advised the instrumentation and provided critical review to the manuscript. Mrs. Bridges Hamilton collected data and provided critical review to the manuscript. Ms. Delgado collected data and provided critical review to the manuscript. Ms. Craig collected data and provided critical review to the manuscript. Dr. Umstattd Meyer advised the funding and implementation of the study as well as provided critical review to the manuscript.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was made possible by a Baylor University Research Committee Small Grant Award.
