Midlife Women's Attitudes toward Physical Activity: Four Major Ethnic Groups in the U.S

Background: Little is known about how midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity influence their physical activity despite an increasing number of studies on women's physical activity. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to examine differences in midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity and their actual physical activity by ethnicity, and determine the relationships between the two major variables. As the theoretical framework, the Midlife Women's Attitudes toward Physical Activity model was used. Method: This was a cross-sectional study among 542 midlife women using the Internet as the medium for data collection. The data were collected using questions on background characteristics and health and menopausal status, the Physical Activity Assessment Inventory, the modified Barriers to Health Activities Scale, the Questions on Attitudes toward Physical Activity, Subjective Norm, Perceived Behavioral Control, and Behavioral Intention, and the Kaiser Physical Activity Survey. Then, the data were analyzed using ANOVA, correlation, hierarchical multiple regression, and path analyses. Results: There were significant differences in the attitudes scores (F=2.58, p<.05) by ethnicity, but no differences in the physical activity scores by ethnicity. Yet, there were significant differences in the occupational physical activity scores (F=5.68, p<.01) by ethnicity. The attitude scores significantly explained the total variances of the physical activity scores (R2=.05, Fch=43.52, p<.01). The direct paths from the attitudes scores, the self-efficacy scores, and the barrier scores to the physical activity scores (.01