Psychosocial Correlates of Korean Adolescents' Physical Activity Behavior

The purpose of this study was to test the association of psychological and social variables in explaining the physical activity behavior of a random sample of secondary school students in Korea. Participants included 1,347 students enrolled in the 7th to 12th grades (males, 943; females, 404). Four Korean-version questionnaires were used to explore possible associations between psychosocial variables and physical activity among adolescents. Data were analyzed using correlation analysis and structural equation modeling. Results indicated that all of the psychosocial variables showed statistically significant intercorrelations, and were clearly correlated with physical activity behavior. The psychosocial variables accounted for 40.6% of the variance in the adolescents' physical activity behavior, and the proposed model had an excellent fit for exploring relationships among psychological variables, social support, and physical activity behavior. This study offers the first evidence of psychosocial constructs as predictors of Korean adolescents' physical activity behavior.