Enjoyment is a powerful motivator for children’s participation in physical activity (PA). Within Eccles’s expectancy-value theory of motivation, socializing agents such as parents and friends precipitate PA outcomes such as enjoyment. Ability beliefs and subjective task value are considered key mediators in the relationship between social agents and PA outcomes. Few researchers to date, however, have examined the conditional nature of this mediation process. We hypothesize that PA ability beliefs and subjective task value mediate the relationship between friends’ PA social support and PA enjoyment (hypothesis 1; H1). We stipulate, however, that indirect relationships (i.e., social support à ability beliefs; social support àsubjective task value) are moderated (i.e., conditional) by children’s self-efficacy to seek out PA support (H2).
Method:
A total of 330 children (Mage = 9.39, SD= .44) completed questionnaires related to PA social support from friends, PA ability beliefs and subjective task value, PA support seeking self-efficacy, and PA enjoyment. Analysis supported the factor structure and reliability of these measures. H1 was tested with a parallel mediation regression model. H2 was tested in the same fashion with the addition of support seeking self-efficacy as a moderator of indirect relationships. Bootstrap confidence intervals (95%CI) were used to determine mediation (H1) and moderation (H2). CIs not straddling zero were considered significant (p< .05).
Analysis/Results:
The relationship between friends’ social support and enjoyment (R²= .18) was mediated by ability beliefs (95%CI= .07-.31; R²= .29) and subjective task value (95%CI= .12-.33; R²= .22). Further investigation revealed that the relationship between social support from friends and PA ability beliefs was conditional on children having average (M) to high (+1 SD) levels of support seeking self-efficacy for PA. Children with low self-efficacy (-1SD) to seek support for PA were not able to capitalize on the association between friends’ social support and ability beliefs. The mediated relationship between social support and enjoyment via subjective task value was not conditional on support seeking self-efficacy.
Conclusions:
Findings of the conditional process analysis (i.e., moderated mediation) supported the unconditional mediating role of subjective task value as proposed in expectancy-value theory. However, the mediating role of ability beliefs was conditional on support seeking self-efficacy. Support seeking self-efficacy appears to be an important mechanism in the relationship between socializing agents and motivational outcomes as operationalized in expectancy-value theory. This study suggests that motivational processes highlighted in expectancy-value theory may be more complex than originally theorized.
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