Abstract
Studies have demonstrated that postnatal women are at high risk for physical inactivity and generally show lower levels of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) compared to prepregnancy. The overall purpose of the current study was to investigate social cognitive correlates of LTPA among postnatal women during a 6-month period following childbirth. A total of 230 women (mean age = 30.9) provided descriptive data regarding barriers to LTPA and completed measures of LTPA and self-efficacy (exercise and barrier) for at least one of the study data collection periods. A total of 1,520 barriers were content analyzed. Both exercise and barrier self-efficacy were positively associated with subsequent LTPA. Exercise self-efficacy at postnatal week 12 predicted LTPA from postnatal weeks 12 to 18 (β = .40, R 2 = .18) and exercise self-efficacy at postnatal week 24 predicted LTPA during weeks 24–30 (β = .49, R 2 = .30). Barrier self-efficacy at week 18 predicted LTPA from weeks 18 to 24 (β = .33, R 2 = .13). The results of the study identify a number of barriers to LTPA at multiple time points closely following childbirth which may hinder initiation, resumption or maintenance of LTPA. The results also suggest that higher levels of exercise and barrier self-efficacy are prospectively associated with higher levels of LTPA in the early postnatal period. Future interventions should be designed to investigate causal effects of developing participants’ exercise and barrier self-efficacy for promoting and maintaining LTPA during the postnatal period.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cramp, A. G., & Bray, S. R. (2009). Postnatal women’s feeling state responses to exercise with and without baby. Maternal and Child Health Journal. doi: 10.1007/s10995-009-0462-5.
Koltyn, K., & Schultes, S. (1997). Psychological effects of an aerobic exercise session and a rest session following pregnancy. Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 37, 287–291.
Larson-Meyer, D. E. (2002). Effect of postpartum exercise on mothers and their offspring: A review of the literature. Obesity Research, 10, 841–853.
Sampselle, C., Seng, J., Yeo, S., Killion, C., & Oakley, D. (1999). Physical activity and postpartum well-being. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 28, 41–49.
US Department of Health and Human Services (2008). Physical activity guidelines for Americans. http://www.health.gov/PAGuidelines/guidelines/default.aspx. Accessed 30 June 2009.
Bellow-Riecken, K., & Rhodes, R. (2007). A birth of inactivity? A review of physical activity and parenthood. Preventive Medicine, 46, 99–110.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2002). Exercise during pregnancy and postpartum period, committee opinion. No.267. International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, 77, 79–81.
Albright, C. L., Maddock, J. E., & Nigg, C. R. (2005). Physical activity before pregnancy and following childbirth in a multiethnic sample of healthy women in Hawaii. Women and Health, 42, 95–110.
Brown, P. R., Brown, W. J., Miller, Y. D., & Hansen, V. (2001). Perceived constraints and social support for active leisure among mothers with young children. Leisure Science, 23, 131–144.
Grace, S., Williams, A., Stewart, D., & Franche, R. (2006). Health-promoting behaviors through pregnancy, maternity leave, and return to work: Effects of role spillover and other correlates. Women and Health, 43, 51–72.
Wilkinson, S., Huang, C. M., Walker, L. O., Sterling, B. S., & Kim, M. (2004). Physical activity in low-income postpartum women. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 36, 109–114.
Pereira, M., Rifas-Shiman, S., Kleinman, K., Rich-Edwards, J., Peterson, K., & Gilman, M. (2007). Predictors of change in physical activity during and after pregnancy: Project Viva. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32, 312–319.
Boardley, D. J., Sargent, R. G., Coker, A. L., Hussey, J. R., & Sharpe, P. A. (1995). The relationship between diet, activity, and other factors, and postpartum weight change by race. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 86, 834–838.
Sallis, J. F., & Owen, N. (1999). Physical activity and behavioral medicine. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Sallis, J. F., & Hovell, M. F. (1990). Determinants of exercise behavior. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 18, 307–330.
Cody, R., & Lee, C. (1999). Physical activity barriers for mothers of preschool children. ACHPER Healthy Lifestyles Journal, 46, 18–22.
Cramp, A. G., & Brawley, L. R. (2006). Moms in motion: A community based cognitive-behavioral physical activity intervention. IJBNPA, 3, 23–29.
Fahrenwald, N., Atwood, J., Walker, S., Johnson, D., & Berg, K. (2004). A randomized pilot test of “moms on the move”: A physical activity intervention for WIC mothers. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 27, 82–90.
Miller, Y., Trost, S., & Brown, W. (2002). Mediators of physical activity behavior change among women with young children. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 23(S2), 98–103.
Verthoef, M., Love, E., & Rose, M. (1992). Women’s social roles and their exercise participation. Women and Health, 19, 15–29.
Currie, J. L., & Devlin, E. (2004). Stroll your way to well-being: A survey of the perceived benefits, barriers, community support, and stigma associated with pram walking groups designed for new mothers, Sydney, Australia. Health Care for Women Int, 23, 882–893.
Symons Downs, D., & Hausenblas, H. A. (2004). Women’s exercise beliefs and behaviors during their pregnancy and postpartum. J Midwifery Wom Health, 49, 138–144.
Walker, L. O., & Wilging, S. (2000). Rediscovering the “M” in “MCH”: Maternal health promotion after childbirth. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 29, 229–236.
Tulman, L., & Fawcett, J. (1988). Return of functional ability after childbirth. Nursing Research, 37, 77–81.
Mottola, M. F. (2002). Exercise in the postpartum period: Practical applications. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 1, 362–368.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: Freeman.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Dawson, K. A., & Brawley, L. R. (2000). Examining the relationship between exercise goals, self-efficacy, and overt behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 315–329.
Dawson, K. A., Brawley, L. R., & Maddux, J. E. (2000). Examining the relationship among concepts of control and exercise attendance. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 22, 1–14.
Dawson, K. A., & Brawley, L. R. (1995). Predicting the intentions and behavior of exercise initiates using two forms of self-efficacy. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 18, 479–497.
Gyurcsik, N. C., Bray, S. R., & Brittain, D. R. (2004). Coping with barriers to vigorous physical activity during transition to university. Fam Community Health, 27, 130–142.
Cramp, A. G., & Bray, S. R. (2009). A prospective examination of exercise and barrier self-efficacy to engage in leisure time physical activity during pregnancy. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. doi: 10.1007/s12160-009-9102-y.
McAuley, E., & Mihalko, S. (1998). Measuring exercise-related self-efficacy. In J. Duda (Ed.), Advances in sport and exercise psychology measurement (pp. 371–381). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
Haskell, W., Lee, I., Pate, R., et al. (2007). Physical activity and public health. Updated recommendation for adults from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 39, 1423–1434.
Kriska, A., Knowler, W., LaPorte, R., et al. (1990). Development of questionnaire to examine relationship of physical activity and diabetes in Pima Indians. Diabetes Care, 13, 401–411.
Kriska, A., & Casperson, C. (1997). A collection of physical activity questionnaires. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29, S79–S82.
Aaron, D., Kriska, A., Dearwater, S., et al. (1993). The epidemiology of leisure physical activity in an adolescent population. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 25, 847–853.
Aaron, D., Kriska, A., Dearwater, S., et al. (1995). Reproducibility and validity of an epidemiologic questionnaire to assess past year physical activity in adolescents. American Journal of Epidemiology, 142, 191–201.
Schulz, L., Harper, I., Smith, C., Kriska, A., & Ravussin, E. (1994). Energy intake and physical activity in Pima Indians: Comparison with energy expenditure measured by doubly-labeled water. Obesity Research, 2, 541–548.
Ainsworth B. (2008). The compendium of physical activities tracking guide. Prevention Research Available at http://prevention.sph.sc.edu/tools/docs/documents_compendium.pdf. Accessed 6 August 2008.
Weber, R. P. (1990). Basic content analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Brawley, L. R., Martin, K. A., & Gyurcsik, N. (1998). Problems in assessing perceived barriers in exercise: Confusing obstacles with attributions and excuses. In J. L. Duda (Ed.), Advancements in sport and exercise psychology measurement (pp. 337–350). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
Green, S. B. (1991). How many subjects does it take to do a regression analysis? Multivariate Behavioral Research, 26, 499–510.
Landis, R. J., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159–174.
Tabachnick, B., & Fidell, L. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston, MS: Pearson Education Inc.
Blanchard, C. M., Reid, R. D., Morrin, R. I., et al. (2007). Barrier self-efficacy and physical activity over a 12-month period in men and women who do and do not attend cardiac rehabilitation. Rehabilitation Psychology, 52, 65–73.
Courneya, K. S., McKenzie, D. C., & Reid, R. D. (2008). Barriers to supervised exercise training in a randomized controlled trial of breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Annal of Behaviour Medicine, 35, 116–122.
Gyurcsik, N. C., Spink, K. S., Bray, S. R., Chad, K., & Kwan, M. (2006). An ecologically-based examination of barriers to physical activity in students from grade seven through first-year university. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 704–711.
Bandura, A. (2002). Health promotion by social cognitive means. Health Education & Behavior, 31, 143–164.
Bandura, A. (1995). Self-efficacy in changing societies. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
McAuley, E. (1993). Self-efficacy and the maintenance of exercise participation in older adults. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 16, 103–113.
Brawley, L. R., Culos-Reed, S. N., Angove, J., & Hoffman-Goetz, L. (2002). Understanding the barriers to physical activity for individuals with cancer: Review and recommendations. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 20, 1–22.
Meichenbaum, D., & Turk, D. (1978). Facilitating treatment adherence: A practitioner’s guidebook. New York: Plenum Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cramp, A.G., Bray, S.R. Understanding Exercise Self-Efficacy and Barriers to Leisure-Time Physical Activity Among Postnatal Women. Matern Child Health J 15, 642–651 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-010-0617-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-010-0617-4