The Relationship Between Being Bullied and Exercise Motivation

1. The Relationship Between Being Bullied and Exercise Motivation Erica Anderson Yun Park

2. Say NO to bullying! http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=social+bullying&view=detail&id=C46BACD6FDF95AA10365BD72E24C36D7C8FBC52A&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR -Zack W. Van http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bullying&view=detail&id=0090A07DA49850B5F1A627898EBDFA38820B55D3&first=0&qpvt=bullying&FORM=IDFRIR

3. Defining Terms • Bullying (specifically Peer Victimization) • Physical • Verbal • Social/indirect • Exercise Motivation • Internal - intrinsic, introjected • External - extrinsic, identified • Amotivation

4. Previous Literature • Survey reports 82% of peer emotional victimization occurred during school contexts (Turner, Finkelhor, Hamby, Shattuck, & Ormrod, 2011). • Victims of bullying are at an increased risk to suffer serious and long-term emotional as well as physical consequences (Steinfeldt, Vaughan, LaFollette, & Steinfeldt, 2012).

5. Previous Literature (cont’d) • Exercise plays a vital role in weight management and those who are overweight tend to experience peer victimization (being bullied) more frequently (Peterson, Puhl, & Luedicke, 2012). • Those motivated by intrinsic reasons tended to have higher exercise motivation in the future than those who were motivated by extrinsic reasons (Gillison, Sebire, & Standage, 2011).

6. Research Question • No study up to date has investigated the long term effects of bullying on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation styles. • Is there a relationship between being a victim of bullying and self-determined motivation to exercise?

7. Hypotheses • Those who experienced bullying in the past will tend to report less motivation to exercise that is self-determined. • This will be influenced by gender: • Females who experienced more victimization in the past will show less overall motivation to exercise when compared to males. • Females will report more extrinsic motivation than males.

8. Participants • 62 Penn State Behrend undergraduate students (22 males/39 females) • Recruited through Penn State Behrend SONA system (ages 18 and up) • Completion of surveys implied consent to participate(IRB #40941)

9. Materials • Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire • Were you physically bullied at secondary school? • “hit/punch:” yes_ or no_? (check one) • “stolen from:” yes_ or no_? • Were you verbally bullied in primary school? • “called names:” yes _ no _? • “threatened:” yes _ no _? • Were you indirectly bullied at primary school? • “had lies told about you:” yes _ no _? • “excluded:” yes _ no _?

10. Materials (cont’d) • Exercise Regulations Questionnaire (BREQ-2) • Internal/Intrinsic motivation: “I exercise because it’s fun.” • Introjected regulation: “I feel guilty when I don’t exercise.” • External/Extrinsic motivation: “I exercise because other people say I should.” • Identified regulation: “I value the benefits of exercise.” • Amotivation: “I don’t see why I should have to exercise.”

11. Procedure & Method • Read implied consent form • Completed both surveys– Pen & Paper • Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire • Degree of bully victimization experiences • BREQ-2 • RAI score

12. Results • Moderate and negative relationship between degree to which exercise motivation is self-determined and degree of bully victimization experiences. r(61)=-.364, p<.05

13. Gender:FemaleGender: Male r(39)=-.376, p<.05 r(22)=-.359, p<.05

14. External vs. Internal Motivation

15. Discussion • Hypothesis 1: Those who experienced bullying in the past will tend to report less motivation to exercise that is self-determined. Confirmed! • Supports previous research: • Being bullied during adolescence can have long-term physical and emotional effects (Steinfeldt, Vaughan, LaFollette, & Steinfeldt, 2012). • Being bullied can deter individuals from participating in physical activity (Peterson, et al., 2012).

16. Discussion (cont’d) • Hypothesis 2/3: Females who experienced more victimization in the past will show less overall motivation to exercise when compared to males. Confirmed! • Also, females will report more extrinsic motivation when compared to males, who will report more intrinsic motivation. No main effect.

17. Discussion (cont’d) • It’s possible that those who have been bullied have a predisposition for holding poor exercise motivation beliefs. • Being overweight was reported most commonly as a reason why one was bullied. • “Often bullied because of my weight and often saw other people get bullied about their weight as well."

18. Discussion (cont’d) • Example Case • "Back in middle school, this kid and his friends called me ‘Jiggly Puff’ as a way to tell me I'm fat. Other names consisted of ‘Cream Puff’, ‘fattie’, and ‘tubby’.” • Low RAI score (RAI = 2;µRAI = 40.20).

19. Limitations • Self-report measures • Spectrum of victimization severity • Small sample size • Females overrepresented

20. Implications • Future research should further investigate the gender differences • What factors could explain why females (but not males) show a decrease in self-motivated exercise beliefs when experiencing bullying? • More internalization of bullied experiences? • Could this be explained by females internalizing more?

21. References • Gillison, F., Sebire, S., & Standage, M. (2011). What motivates girls to take up exercise during adolescence? Learning from those who succeed. British Journal of Health Psychology, 17(3), 536-550. • Peterson, J. L., Puhl, R.M., & Luedicke, J. (2012). An experimental investigation of physical education teachers’ and coaches’ reactions to weight-based victimization in youth. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13, 177-185. • Steinfeldt, J.A., Vaughan, E.L., LaFollette, J.R., & Steinfeldt, M.C. (2012). Bullying among adolescent football players: Role of masculinity and moral atmosphere. Psychology of Men & Masculinity. 1-14. • Turner, H. A., Finkelhor, D., Hamby, S. L., Shattuck, A., & Ormrod, R.K. (2011). Specifying type and location of peer victimization in a national sample of children and youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

22. Thank you for your time!