The Relationship Between Being Bullied and Exercise Motivation

Erica AndersonYun Park

Say NO to bullying!

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-Zack W. Van

Bullying (specifically Peer Victimization) ◦ Physical◦ Verbal◦ Social/indirect

Exercise Motivation◦ Internal - intrinsic, introjected◦ External - extrinsic, identified◦ Amotivation

Defining Terms

Survey reports 82% of peer emotional victimization occurred during school contexts (Turner, Finkelhor, Hamby, Shattuck, & Ormrod, 2011).

Victims of bullying are at an increased risk to suffer serious and long-term emotional as well as physical consequences (Steinfeldt, Vaughan, LaFollette, & Steinfeldt, 2012).

Previous Literature

Exercise plays a vital role in weight management and those who are overweight tend to experience peer victimization (being bullied) more frequently (Peterson, Puhl, & Luedicke, 2012).

Those motivated by intrinsic reasons tended to have higher exercise motivation in the future than those who were motivated by extrinsic reasons (Gillison, Sebire, & Standage, 2011).

Previous Literature (cont’d)

No study up to date has investigated the long term effects of bullying on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation styles.

Is there a relationship between being a victim of bullying and self-determined motivation to exercise?

Research Question

Those who experienced bullying in the past will tend to report less motivation to exercise that is self-determined.

This will be influenced by gender:◦ Females who experienced more victimization

in the past will show less overall motivation to exercise when compared to males.

◦ Females will report more extrinsic motivation than males.

Hypotheses

62 Penn State Behrend undergraduate students (22 males/39 females)

Recruited through Penn State Behrend SONA system (ages 18 and up)

Completion of surveys implied consent to participate (IRB #40941)

Participants

Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire◦ Were you physically bullied at secondary school?

“hit/punch:” yes_ or no_? (check one) “stolen from:” yes_ or no_?

◦ Were you verbally bullied in primary school? “called names:” yes _no _? “threatened:” yes _no _?

◦ Were you indirectly bullied at primary school? “had lies told about you:” yes _ no _? “excluded:” yes _ no _?

Materials

Exercise Regulations Questionnaire (BREQ-2)◦ Internal/Intrinsic motivation: “I exercise

because it’s fun.”◦ Introjected regulation: “I feel guilty when I

don’t exercise.”◦ External/Extrinsic motivation: “I exercise

because other people say I should.”◦ Identified regulation: “I value the benefits of

exercise.”◦ Amotivation: “I don’t see why I should have to

exercise.”

Materials (cont’d)

◦Read implied consent form◦Completed both surveys – Pen & Paper

◦Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire Degree of bully victimization experiences

◦BREQ-2 RAI score

Procedure & Method

Results

r(61)=-.364, p<.05

◦ Moderate and negative relationship between degree to which exercise motivation is self-determined and degree of bully victimization experiences.

r(39)=-.376, p<.05 r(22)=-.359, p<.05

Gender:Female Gender: Male

External vs. Internal Motivation

Hypothesis 1: Those who experienced bullying in the past will tend to report less motivation to exercise that is self-determined. Confirmed!

Supports previous research:◦ Being bullied during adolescence can have long-term

physical and emotional effects (Steinfeldt, Vaughan, LaFollette, & Steinfeldt, 2012).

◦ Being bullied can deter individuals from participating in physical activity (Peterson, et al., 2012).

Discussion

Hypothesis 2/3: Females who experienced more victimization in the past will show less overall motivation to exercise when compared to males. Confirmed!◦Also, females will report more extrinsic

motivation when compared to males, who will report more intrinsic motivation. No main effect.

Discussion (cont’d)

It’s possible that those who have been bullied have a predisposition for holding poor exercise motivation beliefs.

Being overweight was reported most commonly as a reason why one was bullied.

“Often bullied because of my weight and often saw other people get bullied about their weight as well."

Discussion (cont’d)

Example Case◦ "Back in middle school, this kid and his friends

called me ‘Jiggly Puff’ as a way to tell me I'm fat. Other names consisted of ‘Cream Puff’, ‘fattie’, and ‘tubby’.”

◦ Low RAI score (RAI = 2;µRAI = 40.20).

Discussion (cont’d)

Self-report measures

Spectrum of victimization severity

Small sample size

Females overrepresented

Limitations

Future research should further investigate the gender differences◦ What factors could explain why females (but not

males) show a decrease in self-motivated exercise beliefs when experiencing bullying? More internalization of bullied experiences? Could this be explained by females internalizing

more?

Implications

References Gillison, F., Sebire, S., & Standage, M. (2011). What motivates

girls to take up exercise during adolescence? Learning from those who succeed. British Journal of Health Psychology, 17(3), 536-550.

Peterson, J. L., Puhl, R.M., & Luedicke, J. (2012). An experimental investigation of physical education teachers’ and coaches’ reactions to weight-based victimization in youth. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13, 177-185.

Steinfeldt, J.A., Vaughan, E.L., LaFollette, J.R., & Steinfeldt, M.C. (2012). Bullying among adolescent football players: Role of masculinity and moral atmosphere. Psychology of Men & Masculinity. 1-14.

Turner, H. A., Finkelhor, D., Hamby, S. L., Shattuck, A., & Ormrod, R.K. (2011). Specifying type and location of peer victimization in a national sample of children and youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Thank you for your time!