| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this report is to study the associations between exercise and physical activity in various life phases. In particular, our main aim is to investigate the extent to which people exercise at three arenas (self-organized, sport clubs, fitness centres) as young, and then to find out how exercise as young matter for exercising as a young adult. As an example: what is the relation between exercising in a sport association as teenager and exercising at a fitness centre later in life? From previous research, the main finding is that there is a significant relation between exercising as a youth and as an adult, but this relationship is small and even smaller among studies with the longer time span. It is also emphasized that there are many obstacles to study these types of questions: Partly due to difficulty in getting good (enough) data, and the complexity of the phenomena where individual and social factors together develop in processes makes it difficult to include all relevant explanatory factors. The analyses in this report are based on the data set Young in Norway longitudinal, which follows a representative sample of Norwegian youth over a period of thirteen years: From 1992 (T1) when the mean age of the sample is 15 years, via two in-between time points (1994 (T2) and 1999 (T3)) to 2005 (T4) with a mean age of 28. At all time points, the respondents were asked about their exercising habits. Thus, this dataset suits better for answering our research questions than previous datasets, because it’s more representative of the general population and following the respondents over a longer period of time than previous studies. At the same time, several factors of importance for explaining exercise habits are not included in this study. Although we do mainly focus on participation in exercise at three arenas – sport, fitness, self-organized – we do also look into «sports with and without competition» and participation in a small selection of factual sports. Three questions are answered in this report, and we devout one chapter to each of them. In chapter three, we look at how the respondents exercise in 1992, and how their exercise habits develop the next 13 years. First, we find that self-organized exercise is the most common form of exercise at all study periods and increasingly so: from 55 percent at T1 to 65 percent at T4. Second, we find that organized sport is indeed prevalent at T1 (42 percent), but many people leave organized sports and only 14 percent partake at T4. Third, we see that fitness exercise is the least common exercise type at T1, but there is a clear increase in this type of activity: from 17 percent at T1 to 32 percent at T4. The proportion for not exercising at any exercise arena is near constant (about 25 percent) throughout the study period. Chapter four addresses the question of how exercise as young – in general and at the specific arenas – matters for exercise later in life. Looking first at the correlation between exercising at the various arenas and whether one exercises or not at all at T4, we find a significant effect of participation in organized sport and self-organized exercise: 81 percent of those participating in organized sport at T1 exercise (in one way or another) at T4, 80 percent of those exercising on their own. Corresponding numbers for the sample as such is 77 percent (at T4), and for those not exercising in any of the three arenas covered at T1: 65 percent. Looking more specifically at how exercise as young carry importance for exercising as an adult on the three exercise arenas we focus upon, we find (i) a positive significant effect of organized sport at T1 for all three types of exercise at T4, (ii) the same for self-organized exercise on organized and self-organized sport, (iii) fitness sport (T1) has none significant effect for exercise at T4. Correlations between exercise at various time points are in all cases relatively weak when compared to the general level of activity in the sample as such, somewhat stronger when comparing with those not exercising at all at T1. Taken as a whole, these findings support existing research: There is a weak but mostly significant correlation between exercise as a young adolescent and a young adult, stronger in the short time span. The correlation is strongest for those exercising in sport clubs, somewhat weaker for those exercising on their own, and weakest for those participating at the fitness centers. Among those not participating at any of the three arenas at T1, the level of physical activity is considerably lower at T4, but also in this group we find that about two thirds are exercising (one way or another) at T4. In chapter five, we put the analyses from chapter four into a larger context and investigated the association between exercising as young and later in life controlling for the social background of the respondents. On a general level, this control has small consequences for our main question and the effects remain very much the same as in the bivariate analyses: Weak correlations, weaker by time, strongest for those with a background from sport associations, followed by those exercising for themselves, and weaker for those with a background in fitness exercise. Gender differences come to the fore with boys to a larger extent being active in organized sport at T4, girls more active when it comes to exercising on their own. Social class matters for self-organized exercise, where there is a positive and significant effect. Living in more urban areas makes it more probable to exercise at a fitness centre. The main finding of the report is that the association between exercising in adolescence (age 15) and as young adult (age 28) is weak, stronger for the shorter time spans, but for most forms of exercise, significant. Comparing those not exercising at all as young with those exercising one way or another indicates stronger correlations. Winding up the report, we interpret the findings in light of theoretical perspectives. In general terms, we assume that exercising as young could provide certain competencies and habits and give experiences making it "easier" to exercise later in life. At the same time, it seems reasonable to assume that the meaning of the actions taking place at the various exercise arenas differ for various age groups, explaining why the associations we find are not stronger. | en |
