Do High- and Low-active Adolescents Have Different Prototypes of Physically Active Peers?

In this study, 548 secondary school students aged 14-21 years in Szeged, Hungary, were tested to determine how social attitudes influence the development of prototypes, which are images that people have of the type of person who engages in particular health-related behaviours - in this case, exercise. The role of prototypes in young people's health-related decision making is highlighted in the Prototype/Willingness model developed by Gibbons and Gerrard and their colleagues.

As the researchers explain, the results of previous studies have indicated that adolescents' health-related behaviours are influenced by such prototypes. It has been shown that "[p]ositive images increase the probability of participating in unhealthy behaviors [such as smoking or drinking alcohol], whereas negative images decrease it....One reason for this is that young people realize that engaging in certain health-risk behaviors may function as a social and visual instrument that symbolizes belonging to a group and thus a means to social interaction." According to the authors of this study, "[m]ost prototype investigations have focused on health-risk behaviors; the role of prototypes in health-promoting behaviors is a less investigated field of research."

The researchers examined: (i) whether high-active and low-active adolescents have different prototypes of physically active peers and (ii) how social attitudes, such as social comparison (comparing the self to others or to the image of others), competitiveness (described here as a form of self-comparison with other persons), and certain aspects of life defense mechanisms (LDMs), influenced the perceptions of these prototypes. The self-administered questionnaire revealed that physical activity behaviour had clear social images associated with exercise, such as physically fit or healthy. Results showed that: (i) males have different tendencies of developing prototypes according to their physical activity status; (ii) social attitudes and levels of physical activity were determining factors; and (iii) significant differences existed between the low-physical- and high-physical-activity groups regarding the role of social attitudes in the prototype perceptions.

An excerpt from the paper follows:

"We believe that prototype perceptions are important influences on health-promoting behaviors, such as physical activity, because the positive, desirable attributes of such behaviors may serve as motivational goals for individuals in decision making. In our study, the frequencies of prototype items suggest that some adjectives, that is, prototype components (e.g., sporty, athletic, outgoing/popular, attractive, intelligent, self-assured), were more accepted than had been found in a previous study of exercise prototypes...

Our results also indicate that...females tend to develop prototypes of physically active peers belonging to either the low- or high-activity group. However, males have a higher tendency toward developing these prototypes when they belong to the high-activity group. For males, behavior seems to be more determinant.

...[T]he social contexts of prototype perceptions of physically active peers differ according to the levels of the youths' physical activity. For high-active adolescents, prototype perceptions are based on rational considerations, whereas for low-active adolescents, other social attitudes are also related to their prototype perceptions, particularly their attitudes towards interpersonal harmony and conformity needs. In addition, gender also contributed here to the development of this prototype scale.

...All in all, our preliminary results show that social images of health-promoting behaviors (e.g., physical activity) should be an important topic of research....Such research would help us better understand the social context of prototype perceptions. In addition, our findings indicate that prototype perceptions of physically active peers may act in different ways in low-active and high-active youths. Thus, these findings suggest that health-promotion programs should focus on fostering positive images of physically active peers."