Erica Anderson Yun Park

ullying&view=detail&id=0090A07DA4 9850B5F1A627898EBDFA38820B55D 3&first=0&qpvt=bullying&FORM=IDF RIR &id=C46BACD6FDF95AA10365BD72E24C36D7C8FBC52A&first=0&F ORM=IDFRIR -Zack W. Van

 Bullying (specifically Peer Victimization) ◦ Physical ◦ Verbal ◦ Social/indirect  Exercise Motivation ◦ Internal - intrinsic, introjected ◦ External - extrinsic, identified ◦ Amotivation

 Survey reports 82% of peer emotional victimization occurred during school contexts (Turner, Finkelhor, Hamby, Shattuck, & Ormrod, 2011).  Victims of bullying are at an increased risk to suffer serious and long-term emotional as well as physical consequences (Steinfeldt, Vaughan, LaFollette, & Steinfeldt, 2012).

 Exercise plays a vital role in weight management and those who are overweight tend to experience peer victimization (being bullied) more frequently (Peterson, Puhl, & Luedicke, 2012).  Those motivated by intrinsic reasons tended to have higher exercise motivation in the future than those who were motivated by extrinsic reasons (Gillison, Sebire, & Standage, 2011).

 No study up to date has investigated the long term effects of bullying on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation styles.  Is there a relationship between being a victim of bullying and self-determined motivation to exercise?

 Those who experienced bullying in the past will tend to report less motivation to exercise that is self-determined.  This will be influenced by gender: ◦ Females who experienced more victimization in the past will show less overall motivation to exercise when compared to males. ◦ Females will report more extrinsic motivation than males.

 62 Penn State Behrend undergraduate students (22 males/39 females)  Recruited through Penn State Behrend SONA system (ages 18 and up)  Completion of surveys implied consent to participate (IRB #40941)

 Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire ◦ Were you physically bullied at secondary school?  “hit/punch:”yes_ or no_? (check one)  “stolen from:”yes_ or no_? ◦ Were you verbally bullied in primary school?  “called names:”yes _no _?  “threatened:”yes _no _? ◦ Were you indirectly bullied at primary school?  “had lies told about you:”yes _ no _?  “excluded:”yes _ no _?

 Exercise Regulations Questionnaire (BREQ-2) ◦ Internal/Intrinsic motivation: “I exercise because it’s fun.” ◦ Introjected regulation: “I feel guilty when I don’t exercise.” ◦ External/Extrinsic motivation: “I exercise because other people say I should.” ◦ Identified regulation: “I value the benefits of exercise.” ◦ Amotivation: “I don’t see why I should have to exercise.”

◦ Read implied consent form ◦ Completed both surveys – Pen & Paper ◦ Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire  Degree of bully victimization experiences ◦ BREQ-2  RAI score

r(61)=-.364, p<.05 ◦ Moderate and negative relationship between degree to which exercise motivation is self- determined and degree of bully victimization experiences.

r(39)=-.376, p<.05r(22)=-.359, p<.05 Gender:Female Gender: Male

 Hypothesis 1: Those who experienced bullying in the past will tend to report less motivation to exercise that is self-determined. Confirmed!  Supports previous research: ◦ Being bullied during adolescence can have long-term physical and emotional effects (Steinfeldt, Vaughan, LaFollette, & Steinfeldt, 2012). ◦ Being bullied can deter individuals from participating in physical activity (Peterson, et al., 2012).

 Hypothesis 2/3: Females who experienced more victimization in the past will show less overall motivation to exercise when compared to males. Confirmed! ◦ Also, females will report more extrinsic motivation when compared to males, who will report more intrinsic motivation. No main effect.

 It’s possible that those who have been bullied have a predisposition for holding poor exercise motivation beliefs.  Being overweight was reported most commonly as a reason why one was bullied.  “Often bullied because of my weight and often saw other people get bullied about their weight as well."

 Example Case ◦ "Back in middle school, this kid and his friends called me ‘Jiggly Puff’ as a way to tell me I'm fat. Other names consisted of ‘Cream Puff’, ‘fattie’, and ‘tubby’.” ◦ Low RAI score (RAI = 2;µ RAI = 40.20).

 Self-report measures  Spectrum of victimization severity  Small sample size  Females overrepresented

 Future research should further investigate the gender differences ◦ What factors could explain why females (but not males) show a decrease in self-motivated exercise beliefs when experiencing bullying?  More internalization of bullied experiences?  Could this be explained by females internalizing more?

 Gillison, F., Sebire, S., & Standage, M. (2011). What motivates girls to take up exercise during adolescence? Learning from those who succeed. British Journal of Health Psychology, 17(3),  Peterson, J. L., Puhl, R.M., & Luedicke, J. (2012). An experimental investigation of physical education teachers’ and coaches’ reactions to weight-based victimization in youth. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13,  Steinfeldt, J.A., Vaughan, E.L., LaFollette, J.R., & Steinfeldt, M.C. (2012). Bullying among adolescent football players: Role of masculinity and moral atmosphere. Psychology of Men & Masculinity  Turner, H. A., Finkelhor, D., Hamby, S. L., Shattuck, A., & Ormrod, R.K. (2011). Specifying type and location of peer victimization in a national sample of children and youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Thank you for your time!