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Physical Activity and Quality of Life—The Complementary Influence of Self-Efficacy for Physical Activity and Mental Health Difficulties

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Abstract

Background

Studies proposed that the physical activity and quality of life (QoL) relationship may not be entirely direct but mediated through other variables; however, few studies have examined these relationships in diverse population’s older adults.

Purpose

This study aims to examine the roles of self-efficacy and mental health difficulties in the physical activity and QoL relationship and to determine if demographic characteristics alter these relationships.

Methods

One hundred ninety-six older adults completed measures of physical activity, self-efficacy, mental health difficulties, and QoL. Two-multilevel structural models were tested to determine the relationship between physical activity and QoL.

Results

Both structural models suggested that the relationship between physical activity and QoL is indirect, but the models were not significantly different. In model 1, we observed a positive linear relationship between physical activity and self-efficacy. In turn, self-efficacy was negatively associated with poor mental health difficulties and positively associated with QoL. Mental health difficulties were also negatively associated with QoL. In model 2, physical activity was positively associated with self-efficacy and negatively associated with mental health difficulties; in turn, self-efficacy was positively associated with QoL, whereas mental health difficulties were negatively associated with QoL.

Conclusions

Overall, our findings suggest that self-efficacy and mental health have intermediary roles in the relationship between physical activity and QoL in a diverse sample of older adults. Prospective studies are needed to determine whether self-efficacy and mental health difficulties are complementary or one or the other accounts for more variance in the relationship between physical activity and QoL.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by a cancer prevention fellowship supported by the National Cancer Institute grant R25T CA57730, Robert M. Chamberlain, Ph.D., Principal Investigator and grant R25T CA090956 to Dr. Gertraud Maskarinec. We also gratefully acknowledge the efforts of Virginia M. Mohlere at the University of Texas—M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and Wendell C. Taylor and the University of Texas—School of Public Health, Houston, TX.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Center for Research on Minority Health, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Raheem J. Paxton

  2. University of Illinois Champaign–Urbana, Urbana, IL, USA

    Robert W. Motl

  3. University of Hawaii (Manoa)—School of Public Health, Honolulu, CDP, HI, USA

    Alison Aylward & Claudio R. Nigg

Authors
  1. Raheem J. Paxton
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  2. Robert W. Motl
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Correspondence to Raheem J. Paxton.

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Paxton, R.J., Motl, R.W., Aylward, A. et al. Physical Activity and Quality of Life—The Complementary Influence of Self-Efficacy for Physical Activity and Mental Health Difficulties. Int.J. Behav. Med. 17, 255–263 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-010-9086-9

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