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!
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