Predicting Physical Activity and Lifelong Health Through Personal Control and Educational Attainment

Abstract

Prior studies have shown that physical activity (PA) is strongly associated with lifelong health and well-being. Thus, analyses of relationships among individual differences, PA, education, and health may provide important insights into the sustainability of PA-related personal development efforts. In this longitudinal study, we tested a proposed model in a data set of 12,686 participants from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY 79). We used hierarchical regressions and bootstrapping to test hypotheses concerning the main effect of personal control on lifetime health, the mediating effect of PA, and the moderating effect of educational achievement. We found that individuals’ self-reported PA was positively related to their health status. Additionally, there was a positive mediating effect of self-reported PA on the relationship between personal control and health when the individual’s educational level was high, and there was a negative mediating effect of self-reported PA when an individual’s educational level was low. Based on these results, we provide relevant government policy suggestions for increasing fitness participation, constructing sports facilities, and encouraging educational institutions to include health education in their efforts.