Pediatric Exercise Science, 2016, 28, 143  -151 http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/pes.2015-0022 .© 2016 Human Kinetics, Inc.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Self-Efficacy Manipulation Influences Physical Activity Enjoyment in Chinese Adolescents Liang Hu, Shoubin Cheng, Jiaying Lu, Lele Zhu, and Ling Chen Zhejiang University Purpose: In this study, we examined the effect of the manipulation of exercise self-efficacy on the enjoyment of physical activity in a sample of 44 Chinese adolescents (age = 14.27 ± .87 y), including 22 boys and 22 girls. Methods: The participants were randomized into a low-efficacy or high-efficacy condition, and their self-efficacy beliefs for engaging in moderate-intensity physical activity were manipulated by providing false feedback after a submaximal exercise test. The participants’ self-efficacy was measured and compared before and after the exercise test and the participants’ enjoyment of physical activity was assessed after the exercise test. Results: It was found that exercise self-efficacy was successfully manipulated in the expected direction in both conditions, which significantly influenced the participants’ enjoyment of physical activity. After the exercise test, the participants in the low-efficacy condition reported lower enjoyment scores relative to the high-efficacy participants. Conclusions: These results suggest that self-efficacy may have an important influence on the enjoyment of physical activity among Chinese adolescents. We recommend that physical activity promotion programs should be tailored to enhance adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs and enjoyment of the experience of physical activity. Keywords: physical activity, exercise, enjoyment, self-efficacy, adolescents Despite the well-documented physical and psychological health benefits associated with physical activity, physical inactivity has been prevalent among Chinese adolescents (25,31,52). Although they spend less time watching television than their counterparts in developed countries, Chinese adolescents spend much more time on homework due to a heavy study load (25,48) and display lower levels of physical activity and higher rates of sedentary activity (20,25,44). Such patterns have been linked to the continuous decrease in the fitness level of Chinese youth according to the National Fitness Surveillance (31). Researchers have long stressed the urgency of effective promotion of physical activity among adolescents and the importance of identifying key factors that may influence adolescents’ participation in physical activity (4,20,40). The importance of enjoyment has been increasingly recognized in the context of physical activity (14,15,37,51). Enjoyment can be described as a positive affective state that reflects feelings such as pleasure, happiness, and fun (50). It has been consistently identified as an important correlate of physical activity participation by both adults and adolescents (12,14,22,32,40,49,51). These quantitative results suggest that the physical Hu, Cheng, Zhu, and Chen are with the College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. Lu is with the School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. Address author correspondence to Jiaying Lu at [email protected].

activity interventions that best enhance an enjoyable experience among adolescents will be most effective in promoting their long-term participation in physical activity. However, few studies have examined the factors that may affect the enjoyment of physical activity. As contended by Dishman et al. (14), experimental studies are needed to identify the personal, environmental, and behavioral factors that may be manipulated to maximize the enjoyable experience among adolescents. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) (1–3) offers a theoretical framework for understanding the means by which self-efficacy may change one’s enjoyment of physical activity. As the central component of SCT, self-efficacy is defined as “people’s judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances” (1, p. 391). Having been extensively identified as both an antecedent and consequence of physical activity (5,13,27,35,40), selfefficacy has been proposed to affect health behavior (such as physical activity) both directly and indirectly by exerting an influence on other psychological correlates of physical activity (3). One of these correlates may concern individuals’ affective responses during physical activity. Affective response refers to “the emotional response to a situation” (36). According to SCT, self-efficacy beliefs influence subjective interpretations of the physiological sensations during challenging tasks (2). Individuals who are more efficacious in their exercise ability should report

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more positive affective responses and greater enjoyment than those who are less efficacious (30). Studies of adults have provided support for the relationship between the expectations of self-efficacy and the interpretations of the physiological sensations during physically challenging activities. For example, McAuley and Courneya (28) found that sedentary middle-aged adults with greater exercise self-efficacy reported more positive feelings during exercise than did those with lower self-efficacy. Furthermore, previous research using an experimental design has provided compelling empirical evidence that self-efficacy of physical activity, which can be manipulated by providing positive or negative false feedback, was associated with changes in the subject’s mood after exercise (19,21,30). The results of these explorations, taken together, clearly support Bandura’s argument that greater self-efficacy expectations relative to exercise result in more positive affective responses to, and greater enjoyment of, physical activity among adults (3). Considering that both affective response (24,26,34,41) and enjoyment (12,14,22,49) have been recognized as important factors that influence physical activity behaviors in adolescents, it is worth exploring the feasibility of enhancing affective response and enjoyment of physical activity by boosting self-efficacy, which should promote physical activity participation in this age group. Although a number of experimental studies have been conducted in adolescents to examine affective responses to exercise and their association with physical activity in various settings (24,26,34,41), relatively less research attention was paid to enjoyment. Furthermore, experimental evidence regarding the relationship between self-efficacy and enjoyment of physical activity among adolescents is still lacking. Robbins et al. (38) specifically examined the relationship between self-efficacy, enjoyment, and feeling state during physical activity in adolescents of various ethnic backgrounds and developmental stages. They found that adolescents with greater self-efficacy before the activity experienced more positive feelings during a treadmill exercise, which in turn predicted greater enjoyment of the activity. However, no manipulation of any of the psychological variables was introduced in this correlational study. Given that both self-efficacy (19,21,30) and enjoyment (14) have been found to be malleable, from the perspective of physical activity promotion, it is certainly worthwhile to explore whether the manipulation of selfefficacy can be applied to create more enjoyable experiences in physical activity for adolescents. We have not identified any previous research reports to this end, and therefore focus on addressing this research gap in the current study. Chinese adolescents represent a large subpopulation at risk for physical inactivity, therefore a high priority should be placed on a search for effective strategies of promoting physical activity for this group (48,52). Sallis and Owen (39) argued that the degree to which psychological variables influence physical activity is likely to vary in diverse population subgroups. Robbins

et al. (38) also pointed out the necessity of developing physical activity plans that appeal to different racial groups. They reported that African American adolescents indicated greater enjoyment of a treadmill exercise than did their European American counterparts. Although self-efficacy has been linked with physical activity in Chinese adolescents (20), we are not aware of any study that has examined the relationship between self-efficacy and enjoyment in Chinese students using an experimental design. Hence, based on SCT, we examined the influence of the manipulation of self-efficacy on the enjoyment of physical activity among Chinese adolescents. It was hypothesized that (1) an experimental manipulation through positive or negative feedback would result in an increase or decrease in self-efficacy expectation, respectively, and (2) increasing a subject’s self-efficacy would be associated with greater enjoyment of physical activity, whereas experimentally decreasing a subject’s self-efficacy would be associated with less enjoyment of physical activity.

Method Study Design The current study used an experimental design that involved randomizing 2 groups for exercise self-efficacy to be manipulated in opposite directions; pretest and posttest data were collected and compared.

Setting and Sample We approached a junior middle school in Hangzhou, China, which agreed to provide access to its students for the study. The study protocols were approved by the local institutional review committee and 44 students were recruited to join the study as long as they did not have any contradictions to exercise. They were in the second year in junior middle school, which is equivalent to the eighth grade in the United States, United Kingdom, and many other countries, i.e., the eighth year after kindergarten. There were 22 male and 22 female students, with an average age of 14.27 (SD = .87).

Ethical Consideration All procedures were in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Written informed consent was obtained from both the participants and their parents in the study. We initially consulted the school medical staff and physical education (PE) teachers to ensure that the sample was free from risk factors that would contraindicate their participation in a submaximal exercise test and that there were no marked differences in the activity levels and patterns during the PE classes in school. Physical activity participation was also measured to examine whether difference in physical activity exists between efficacy conditions.

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Measurements

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Self-Efficacy.  The Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale was

used to assess one’s belief in his or her capability to exercise 3 times a week at a moderate intensity (30). This scale consists of 6 items. The first item presents a statement, ‘I am able to continue to exercise three times per week at moderate intensity, for 40+ minutes without quitting for the NEXT MONTH’, whereas each of the other 5 items represent an increment of 1 month in duration, ranging from 2 to 6 months. Using a 100-point percentage scale comprising 10-point increments (0% = no confidence at all, 100% = complete confidence), the participants indicated their confidence in their ability to exercise for each item. The self-efficacy score was calculated by dividing the total of the confidence ratings by the number of items in the scale, resulting in a total score with a possible range of 0–100. The internal consistencies for the self-efficacy scale in this study were excellent (αs > .95).

Enjoyment.  Enjoyment of physical activity was measured using questions adapted from the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) (23). The original PACES included 18 items that were rated on a 7-point bipolar scale based on the instruction set, “How do you feel at the moment about the physical activity you have just been doing?” Sample items were “I enjoy it…I hate it,” “I find it pleasurable…I find it unpleasurable,” “It makes me depressed…It makes me happy.” Motl et al. (32) adapted the PACES for adolescents by reducing the number of statements from 18 to 7 and established the factorial validity of the adapted scale. An overall enjoyment of physical activity score was generated by summing the individual item scores and dividing by the number of items, yielding a possible range of 1 through 7. The internal consistency for the PACES in the current study was excellent (α = .85). Physical Activity.  Physical activity was measured by the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ) (16). It is a simple, self-administered measure with 3 open-ended items that measure the frequency of strenuous (e.g., jogging), moderate (e.g., fast walking), and mild (e.g., easy walking) exercise for periods of more than 15 minutes during one’s free time in a typical week. The weekly frequencies of strenuous, moderate, and mild activities are multiplied by 9, 5, and 3 metabolic equivalents, respectively, and summed to form a measure of total leisure-time physical activity. It should be noted that the unit of GLTEQ scores is not based on minutes or energy expenditure (e.g., calories), and thus merely used for comparing baseline physical activity levels between 2 groups. All of the questionnaires were translated into Chinese and then back-translated from Chinese into English following the procedure adopted by Chan et al. (8). Specifically, the first Chinese version of each measure was translated by a bilingual person and then reviewed by a committee of professionals who were proficient in both

Chinese and English (2 professors in exercise and sport psychology, and 1 research assistant). Another bilingual person performed the back-translation into English and a comparison with the original version. Again, the committee reviewed and adjusted the translation. The Chinese translation of each measure was then given to a group of students for pilot testing, including 3 college students (age range = 19–22 y, 2 males and 1 female) and 10 middle school students (age range = 13–16 y, 7 boys and 3 girls).The latter 10 students were also in the eighth grade of the middle school in which the study was conducted, but different from the participants who were recruited for efficacy manipulation. None of them reported any difficulty in understanding the questions. Therefore, we accepted this version of each measure as the final version to be administered in the current study.

Procedures The students were randomized into either a low-efficacy (n = 22) or a high-efficacy (n = 22) condition. All participants were asked to complete a step exercise test and a battery of surveys before and after the exercise test. Students in the low-efficacy group were provided false negative feedback regarding their exercise test performance, which theoretically would lead to reductions in their exercise self-efficacy. On the contrary, false positive feedback were provided to those in the high-efficacy group to purposefully improve their exercise self-efficacy. The group assignment was blinded to both the study administrators and the presenting PE teachers, except for the researchers who delivered the false feedback. On the testing day, the participants were gathered during 4 separate PE classes in the school gym. The researchers introduced the study purpose and requirements to the students in the presence of the PE teachers. Upon the completion of the pretest questionnaire packets containing measures of exercise self-efficacy, the students were informed that their physical fitness would be tested and feedback would be given on an individual basis, which they were not supposed to discuss with others. They were also told that a questionnaire packet about their general perceptions of physical activity would be given to them to complete at the end. After making sure that all of the participants understood the study procedure, the students were divided into small groups of 4–6 to undergo the step exercise test following the standardized test protocol (53). Briefly, the participants stepped up and down on a standardized stepping box at a height of 30 cm for 3 minutes, following a designated pace of 30 times per minute. The participants completed 1 or 2 practice stepping cycles to become familiar with the pattern before commencing the test. The step test score was calculated by a standardized formula recommended by Yang (53), which was based on the duration of test (seconds) and 3 recovery heart rates (bpm) taken at various time points (1 min to 1 min 30 s, 2 min to 2 min 30 s, and 3 min to 3 min 30 s) after completion of the step test. The formula is:

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step test score = (duration of test ∙ 100) / (2 ∙ sum of three heart rates during recovery) The step score is an indicator of students’ exercise ability, which was used for testing whether any difference in exercise ability exists between the 2 efficacy groups. After taking a 5-minute cool-down break, the participants were directed to 2 feedback stations, where the test administrators delivered previously established false feedback based on their group assignment, rather than on their actual performance. The false feedback was generated by a computer program that graphically illustrated the participant’s heart rate response during the exercise test and fitness level compared with peer group data. Those in the high-efficacy group were informed that in comparison with normative values of students of similar age, sex, and physical activity level, their fitness was placed in the top 20th percentile of their peer group. Conversely, the students in the low-efficacy group were informed that their fitness level was in the bottom 20th percentile of their peer group. To serve as a manipulation check, the participants were then asked to summarize the findings to ensure that they clearly understood the feedback. According to SCT (1,2), the positive or negative feedback may serve as an important source for efficacy expectation and therefore influence one’s efficacy. This feedback protocol has been used in previous studies, and proved to be successful in manipulating participants’ self-efficacy (19,21,30). Following presentation of the feedback, the participants once again completed measures of self-efficacy and enjoyment of physical activity. After all of the tests were successfully completed, during the next PE class the students were individually given their actual results on the exercise test, as well as the true interpretation of their results. They were thanked and given a small gift worth 10 Chinese dollars in return for their participation.

Data Analysis The effect of self-efficacy manipulation was examined by a 2 (condition: high and low self-efficacy) × 2 (time:

before and after the step test) mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA). The difference between the 2 self-efficacy conditions was tested with an independent samples t test. The effect sizes for mean differences were expressed as d (9). A partial correlational analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between the postexercise self-efficacy and enjoyment scores after the exercise test by controlling for the preexercise self-efficacy.

Results The characteristics of the participants are listed in Table 1. No significant difference between the high- and lowefficacy groups was observed on any of the presented parameters, which suggests that any significant differences identified in later analyses should not be a result of difference in these variables. The average step scores of male participants and female participants were 59.87 (SD = 6.65) and 53.71 (SD = 5.02), respectively. According to the normative data of Chinese students in eighth grade (53), the average step test scores of both male and female participants fall into the “average” category. Therefore, the fitness level of participants is about average among peers of the same sex. Although we did not measure in-task exercise intensity, pulse data were collected at three time points (1 min–1 min 30 s, 2 min–2 min 30 s, and 3 min–3 min 30 s) after the step test for calculating test scores. As can be seen in Table 1, 1 minute and 30 seconds after the step test was completed, the average heart rate was still as high as 56% of the age-predicted maximum heart rate for both efficacy conditions, which suggested that the step test may very likely be vigorous for the study participants. Independent t tests were conducted on all the parameters except for “% of boys”; no statistically significant difference was found between the 2 efficacy groups on any of the listed parameters. The scores of pretest and posttest self-efficacy and enjoyment are presented for both groups in Table 2. The

Table 1  Characteristics of Study Participants in Both Conditions (Mean ± SD) Characteristic

High-Efficacy (n = 22)

Low-Efficacy (n = 22)

Total (n = 44)

Age (y)

14.1 ± 1.2

14.5 ± 1.1

14.3 ± 0.9

Height (cm)

160.1 ± 6.1

160.1 ± 6.8

160.1 ± 6.3

Weight (kg)

46.3 ± 6.6

46.5 ± 12.7

46.4 ± 10.1

BMI (kg/m2) HR 1 min 30 s posttest (bpm)

18.2 ± 1.8

18.3 ± 3.9

18.3 ± 2.9

115.5 ± 11.1

114.6 ± 12.3

115.1 ± 11.6

HR/HRmax ratio 1 min posttest

0.6 ± .01

0.6 ± 0.1

0.6 ± 0.1

Step test score

56.0 ± 6.2

57.6 ± 7.0

56.8 ± 6.6

Physical activity

74.5 ± 46.6

71.7 ± 35.7

73.1 ± 41.1

50%

50%

50%

% of boys

Abbreviation: BMI = body mass index; HR = heart rate; HRmax = age-predicted maximum heart rate, as calculated by 220 – age; bpm = beats per minute.

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2 × 2 mixed-model ANOVA suggested that although there was no significant main effect of time (F [1, 42] = 0.15, p = .705, η2 = .01), there was a statistically significant condition × time interaction effect on the self-efficacy scores (F [1, 42] = 9.24, p < .010, η2 = .18). As shown in Table 2, the self-efficacy scores in the high-efficacy condition increased significantly (d = 0.27), whereas a significant reduction in the self-efficacy scores was observed in the low-efficacy condition (d = –0.24). An independent-sample t test revealed that the difference in the enjoyment scores between the 2 conditions after the exercise test was statistically significant (t40 = 2.15, p < .050, d = 0.66), with a moderate effect size. A subsequent partial correlational analysis suggested that after controlling for preexercise self-efficacy, the postexercise self-efficacy for physical activity was significantly and moderately correlated with the enjoyment of physical activity (r = .32, p < .050). No sex difference was found in preexercise selfefficacy (t42 = 1.11, p = .28), postexercise self-efficacy (t42 = 1.46, p = .15), and enjoyment (t40 = –.13, p = .90).

Discussion In the current study, we examined the influence of a selfefficacy manipulation on the enjoyment of physical activity among a group of Chinese middle school students. Using a well-established research design and manipulation method that has been successfully applied in other studies with adults (19,21,30), our study confirmed that the self-efficacy beliefs of Chinese adolescents could be enhanced or lowered by positive or negative false feedback. More importantly, we found the predicted significant difference in the enjoyment scores between the positive feedback condition and the negative feedback condition. This finding suggests that the manipulation of self-efficacy did significantly influence Chinese adolescents’ enjoyment of physical activity. This contention is further supported by the significant association between the postexercise self-efficacy and enjoyment of physical activity after controlling for preexercise self-efficacy. Our study represents the first experimental effort to provide compelling evidence to support the social cognitive per-

spective (1,2) that self-efficacy beliefs influence enjoyment of physical activity among Chinese adolescents. SCT proposes that mastery experience, verbal persuasion, vicarious experience, and interpretation of physical and emotional states serve as major sources for people’s judgment of their ability to execute a certain course of action (2). In the current study, when students were told that their exercise ability was superior to that of their peers, their beliefs in their ability to perform exercise (i.e., exercise self-efficacy) markedly improved; whereas the students who were informed that they placed in the bottom category among their peers in terms of fitness experienced a significant drop in their beliefs about executing exercise behaviors. It appears that the false feedback successfully used the sources of efficacy to exert an influence on the formation of self-efficacy beliefs. We are aware of 3 previous studies that adopted methods of self-efficacy manipulation to examine the relationship between self-efficacy and affect. Hu et al. (19) and Jerome et al. (21) both found a significant decrease in self-efficacy in participants who received negative false feedback following an exercise test, whereas the selfefficacy of those in the efficacy-enhancement condition (positive false feedback) remained relatively stable. However, different findings were reported in another study (30), which suggested that self-efficacy scores increased in the high-efficacy condition but remained unchanged in the low-efficacy condition. Interestingly, all 3 of these studies applied similar efficacy-manipulation strategies to low-active female college students. In our study, self-efficacy beliefs were significantly changed in the expected manner among students in both the positive and negative false feedback conditions. A possible explanation is that individuals in adolescence, as compared with adulthood, are more likely to lack accurate judgment of their actual exercise capabilities and thus relate the evaluation of their fitness more to messages delivered from teachers and professionals. Further, the computerized comparison of their test results with peers may have had a strong effect on the confidence of the adolescents because their relative standing among their peers is important to them. Adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs can be purposefully manipulated, which has considerable potential in the promotion of physical activity, especially when the

Table 2  Self-Efficacy and Enjoyment Scores by Condition Across Time Among Middle School Students d

Enjoyment

65.83 ± 28.58

0.27

4.99 ± 1.17

24.48a

–0.24

4.23 ± 1.11b

n

Pretest Self-Efficacy

Posttest Self-Efficacy

High-efficacy

22

58.48 ± 26.87

Low-efficacy

22

55.30 ± 23.57

49.62 ±

Total

44

56.89 ± 25.03

57.73 ± 27.55

Note: d = effect size of the comparison between pretest and posttest self-efficacy. a Significant difference in posttest self-efficacy between high-efficacy and low-efficacy groups. b Significant difference in enjoyment of physical activity between high-efficacy and low-efficacy groups.

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4.61 ± 1.19

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manipulation increases self-efficacy. PE teachers and parents should be informed about the importance and appropriate means of enhancing, rather than hampering, adolescent students’ confidence in physical activity. In addition, we showed that the changes in selfefficacy induced by false feedback were associated with a difference in the enjoyment of physical activity among Chinese adolescents. In particular, increases in self-efficacy produced by positive false feedback led to greater enjoyment of the activity. To our knowledge, previous studies that have examined the effects of efficacy manipulation on affective response and enjoyment were all based on female college students. Our study represents the first attempt to include male students, and thus allows for examining potential sex differences. However, no sex difference was found in any of the major outcomes of the study, i.e., preexercise self-efficacy, postexercise self-efficacy, and enjoyment. It appears that our study results are generalizable to both sexes in this age group. Another important notion concerns the retrospective nature of enjoyment of exercise. That is, students’ self-efficacy was manipulated after exercise, and the enjoyment was assessed on the basis of recall after, instead of during the exercise. It appears that adolescents’ enjoyment of exercise may persist even after the exercise is completed, in the event that self-efficacy is effectively boosted. From a practical standpoint, it might be valuable to maximize the chances of creating an efficacyenhancing environment after exercise, which should elicit an enjoyable experience of exercise. The implications of this finding should be interpreted in the context of physical activity promotion, given that both self-efficacy and enjoyment of physical activity, as 2 modifiable psychological constructs, have been consistently studied as important correlates of physical activity. First, observational evidence has accumulated to link self-efficacy with physical activity behavior among adolescents (11,33,40). Hence, self-efficacy has been commonly assessed as a cognitive mediator of behavior in physical activity interventions and has been found to mediate changes in physical activity among adolescents (14,18,45). That is, physical activity interventions have been shown to have a significant effect on self-efficacy and changes in self-efficacy were related to changes in physical activity participation. Second, enjoyment can be considered a source of intrinsic motivation that may have an important influence on physical activity behavior (14,32). Prospective evidence has linked both enjoyment of physical activity (12,47) and enjoyment of PE (4) with physical activity during youth. Dishman et al. (14) extended the findings by showing that among black and white adolescent girls in a school-based intervention, an increase in physical activity was mediated by changes in the students’ enjoyment of the physical activity. It appears that enjoyment exerts a proximal and tangible influence on behavior by providing an immediate affective reward for participation in physical activity (14). Hence, if adolescents’ enjoyment can be increased through the enhancement of their

self-efficacy beliefs, a direct improvement in physical activity should also be expected. As 2 important correlates of physical activity, selfefficacy and enjoyment of physical activity have been found to be consistently correlated with each other. Disentangling the relationship between self-efficacy (a cognitive process) and enjoyment (an affective state) has both theoretical and practical implications (7,38). Although the influence of self-efficacy on physical activity behavior is proximal and mediates the influence of affect on behavior (2), researchers have also contended that the effect of self-efficacy on physical activity may be mediated by other psychological variables, of which enjoyment may be one (14). As proposed by Bandura (3), self-efficacy beliefs shape individuals’ expectations about the outcomes of activity. More efficacious individuals are more likely to enjoy physical activity and have more positive expectations about participation, especially under challenging circumstances. However, those with low self-efficacy are less likely to enjoy it and may be more prone to anticipate the futility of activity, resulting in greater likelihood of giving up. It is also plausible that enjoyment has an indirect effect on individuals’ experience of physical activity by influencing their self-efficacy. Prospective evidence has suggested that the enjoyment of physical activity influences the mediational effect of self-efficacy on changes in physical activity among older adults (29). Based on a randomized controlled trial, Dishman et al. (14) found that physical activity enjoyment had a moderate effect on self-efficacy and a weak effect on physical activity, and that self-efficacy had a moderate effect on physical activity. Such findings suggest that factors that influence the enjoyment of PE and of physical activity both serve as sources of self-efficacy expectation, and their indirect effects on physical activity are mainly mediated by self-efficacy. Therefore, the path between self-efficacy and enjoyment may be reciprocal. This is certainly consistent with SCT, which posits that the relationship between selfefficacy and affect is bidirectional. That is, self-efficacy is associated with well-being and, in turn, affective responses also provide a source of information from which subsequent self-efficacy expectations are formed. In the current study, given that the enjoyment of physical activity was assessed after the efficacy manipulation, the between-group difference in the enjoyment scores suggested that the efficacy manipulation did exert a significant influence on the subjects’ enjoyment of the exercise test. Future studies may further explore the interaction between self-efficacy and enjoyment in the domain of physical activity. From the perspective of physical activity promotion, researchers have clearly voiced the need to identify specific correlates of physical activity in adolescents, which may be different from those of adults (49). Unlike adults, adolescents are less motivated to be active by the long-term benefits of physical activity (6,22), whereas enjoyment and spending time with their friends have

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been shown to serve as stronger motivators for physical activity among adolescents (10,49). In addition, it has been argued that attention must be given to helping adolescents develop culturally appropriate plans for physical activity (39). According to the results of our study, it is plausible to apply strategies of boosting selfefficacy among Chinese adolescents, which helps them enjoy physical activity more. This is important given that exercise-related increases in enjoyment (14) and affective response (24) can help enhance participation in physical activity. To increase efficacy beliefs, methods of encouragement, persuasion, and the creation of socially supportive environments should be promoted to enhance their confidence in participating in physical activity. Conversely, if negative feedback, such as low performance on a fitness test or incompetence in sporting activities, is delivered to students, their beliefs might be hampered, leading to an adverse effect on their physical activity behavior. That is, those adolescents would engage in less physical activity or even drop out completely. In addition, joint efforts should be made by PE teachers, parents, and even schoolmates to achieve the goal of increasing self-efficacy for physical activity to promote greater involvement.

Conclusions Overall, our study lends support to the position of SCT (1,2) that self-efficacy plays a critical role in a subject’s affect in the domain of physical activity. The current study is certainly not without limitations. First, the sample solely consisted of eighth grade students from one middle school in China, which limits the ability to generalize the study findings. The relatively small sample size also excluded the possibility of applying sophisticated analyses such as model testing to confirm the mediating effect of self-efficacy and enjoyment on physical activity behavior as revealed in the Western literature (14,18). Future studies should adopt a method of stratified sampling and attempt to recruit more students with a wider age span to offer more generalizable evidence on the effects of self-efficacy on the enjoyment of physical activity. Second, previous studies have suggested that intensity played a critical role in the affective responses to physical activity (17,41–43,46). Specifically, it was found that more positive affective responses can be elicited at the self-selected exercise intensities than at the prescribed intensities (17). In addition, the affective response during moderate-intensity, but not hard-intensity exercise, was positively associated with physical activity participation (41). Researchers recommended that adolescents should be encouraged to exercise at an intensity that makes them feel “good”, which can increase their exercise behavior without sacrificing fitness (42). When it comes to the efficacy-affect relationship, the intensity of the exercise (19) may be influential as well. In particular, it was found among a group of female college students that self-efficacy influenced the enjoyment of maximal exercise but had less of an effect on submaximal exercise.

In the current study, although no measurement of exercise intensity during the exercise test was available, heart rate data taken 1 minute after exercise suggests that the step exercise test was somewhat intense for the study participants. Taken together with previous reports, our study offers support for SCT, as self-efficacy is proposed to be more influential in terms of the affective process in the face of more challenging situations. However, extension of the current study is certainly warranted to expose adolescent participants to differing intensities of physical activity, so that the role of self-efficacy in the affective responses during physical activity may be tested at various degrees of physical activity challenges and allow for the examination of a dose-response relationship. Last, although students in both conditions experienced marked changes in their efficacy beliefs as a result of the false feedback, the effects of the manipulation were not as strong as we expected. Future studies should design more powerful efficacy-enhancement strategies. Researchers have noted potential racial and cultural influences on self-efficacy and enjoyment (38) and have implied that strategies to enhance self-efficacy should be designed to be more specific for future studies in the Asian context. For example, given that Chinese culture is more collective than that in Western countries, methods of creating a socially supportive environment and providing positive efficacy information in a more structured fashion may be considered. In this aspect, the introduction of longitudinal studies in a more natural setting are also encouraged, which would offer a rich context for integrating the efficacy information from various sources. The above-noted strategies could be applied during the routine of structured PE classes as well as during extracurricular physical activities across time. By so doing, the conclusions would not be limited to a laboratory setting. To conclude, more well-designed, theory-based studies are encouraged to advance our study by examining the role of enjoyment as a potential determinant of physical activity behavior over time, which may allow a better understanding of methods of structuring longterm physical activity programs to maximize adherence and to improve physical and psychological well-being among adolescents. Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (#10YJCXLX016), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (#LQ13G020002), Zhejiang Provincial Social Science Foundation-Zhijiang Young Scholar Project (#13ZJQN031YB), Philosophy and Social Science Project of the State Sports General Administration (2138SS15025), and the Seeds Fund for Interdisciplinary Research at Zhejiang University (JCZZ-2013006) for their funding support. The authors also express their gratitude to Dr. Tony Morris and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments that have significantly helped improve the quality of this paper.

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