PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine compulsive exercise and associations with physical activity and psychosocial health among early adolescents.
METHODS: Four municipalities with 15 secondary schools in Telemark County, Norway, were recruited into participate in this cross-sectional study. A total of 644 pupils (age 13.9±0.3 yrs) participated in the study (response rate: 79%). Information about weight regulation and body dissatisfaction was obtained. Instruments included Actigraph GT3x, Behavioural Regulation of Exercise - Questionnaire (BREQ), KIDSCREEN-27, Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS), and Compulsive Exercise Test (CET). High CET score was identified as total CET score ≥15.
RESULTS: Only 36.5% of the adolescents were sufficiently physically active. Boys had higher total CET score compared to girls (9.97 vs. 9.35, p=0.046), and 7% of the respondents had high CET score. A total of 3.5% showed both high CET score and low levels of physical activity, indicating exercise obsessions without compulsions. There was a positive correlation between total CET score and use of exercise mobile apps (r=.12, p=0.003), and between total CET score and number of weight reduction attempts the past year (r=.22, p=0.02). No correlation was found between total CET score and physical activity, or between total CET score and sedentary time. A regression analysis showed introjected regulation (p<0.001), identified regulation (p=0.03) and extrinsic motivation (p=0.04), but not intrinsic motivation, amotivation, SVS, KIDSCREEN-27 domains, gender or physical activity level, as significant predictors of total CET score.
CONCLUSIONS: Total CET score is associated with weight regulation behavior, and predicted by introjected, identified and extrinsic regulation of physical activity. These findings indicate needs for increased understanding about the complexity of cognitions concerning exercise, and not only exercise behaviour per se.