Predicting Physical Activity Among Children: Investigating Interaction Effects in the Theory of Planned Behavior

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) has been criticized for not including interactions between the variables assumed to predict behavior. This study sought to test how TPB variables interact to predict physical activity (PA) in children.

Four hundred thirty-eight children (M_age = 8.6 years, SD = 1.6 years) completed a TPB questionnaire and a PA questionnaire at Time 1. The PA measure was repeated 2 months later. Path analyses were performed to test the hypothesized model including interaction terms between TPB variables. Simple slopes analyses were also carried out to examine the statistically significant interaction terms.

Path analyses confirmed the classical hypotheses of TPB (R² for intentions = .39, R² for PA = .12) and also demonstrated only statistically significant Attitudes × Perceived Behavioral Control and Subjective Norms × Attitudes interactions (R² change for intentions = .01, p = .009). Simple slopes analyses revealed that the strength of the association between perceived behavioral control and intentions was only statistically significantly higher (t = 2.18, p = .05, d = 0.34, 95% CI  [0.03, 0.65]) when attitudes were high compared with when attitudes were low. The link between attitudes and intentions was only statistically significant at a low level of subjective norms but not at a high level.

The integration of interaction effects between TPB variables did not increase for the variance of PA explained by the model. More research appears to be necessary to explore how the TPB could be augmented to better predict PA in children.