Publication Date

2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Committee Members

Nathan Bowling (Advisor), Melissa Gruys (Committee Member), David Lahuis (Committee Member), Valerie Shalin (Committee Member)

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Abstract

Health concerns associated with obesity are becoming an increasingly large societal problem. Engaging in physical exercise is one effective way to combat obesity, but most people do not exercise enough to derive significant health benefits. In order to increase participation in exercise activities, it is first necessary to have a good understanding of why people are not exercising. The current research builds on prior research by investigating the proposition that conflict from work, family, and school roles can reduce time spent exercising. To accomplish this goal, I created exercise conflict scales by taking existing items from the work-family conflict literature and modifying them to reflect the extent to which time-based and strain-based role conflict from each domain (work, family, and school) interferes with exercise. The new exercise conflict scales were investigated alongside several constructs (i.e., personality, exercise automaticity, exercise intentions, perceived benefits and barriers) that have been demonstrated to correlate with exercise. I anticipated that all types of exercise conflict would be negatively related to exercise, and would moderate the relationship between the other predictors and exercise. Results indicated that all types of exercise conflict were negatively related to exercise as expected. Further, exercise conflict, as well as perceived barriers, exhibited numerous moderating effects. In the future, the exercise conflict scales could potentially be used in exercise interventions in order to help organizations increase exercise participation by providing more targeted (i.e., domain specific) interventions.

Page Count

168

Department or Program

Department of Psychology

Year Degree Awarded

2015

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