Associations between Aspects of Friendship Networks, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behaviour among Adolescents
Table 1
Descriptive statistics for the sociodemographic characteristics, general perceived social support from friends, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour for boys ().
Physical activity
Sedentary behaviour
Sufficiently active (≥60 min of MVPA every day)
Insufficiently active (≥60 min of MVPA on <7 days/week)
High sedentary (>2 hrs/day of sedentary behaviour)
Low sedentary (≤2 hrs/day of sedentary behaviour)
Sociodemographic characteristics
Age [ (%)]
12 years and younger
37 (17.2)
178 (82.8)
157 (73.0)
58 (27.0)b
13 years
31 (19.0)
132 (81.0)
132 (81.0)
31 (19.0)
14 years and older
16 (10.8)
132 (89.2)
132 (89.2)
16 (10.8)b
Family affluence [ (%)]
Low
11 (10.7)
92 (89.3)a
80 (77.7)
23 (22.3)
Medium
32 (14.2)
194 (85.8)
177 (78.3)
49 (21.7)
High
41 (20.8)
156 (79.2)a
164 (83.2)
33 (16.8)
Length of time in Canada [ (%)]
More than 5 years
6 (9.0)
61 (91.0)
56 (83.6)
11 (16.4)
5 years or less
78 (17.0)
381 (83.0)
365 (79.5)
94 (20.5)
Number of times moved last year [ (%)]
Did not move
74 (17.2)
356 (82.8)
340 (79.1)
90 (20.9)
Moved at least once
10 (10.4)
86 (89.6)
81 (84.4)
15 (15.6)
Social network characteristics
Incoming close friend nominations [ (%)]
Received ≥1 nomination
87 (16.1)
453 (83.9)
432 (80.0)
108 (20.0)
Received no nominations
0 (0.0)
9 (100.0)
5 (55.6)
4 (44.4)
Proportion active close friends [mean (SD)]
0.40 (0.4)c
0.30 (0.3)c
0.30 (0.3)d
0.38 (0.3)d
Proportion sedentary close friends [mean (SD)]
0.67 (0.3)
0.72 (0.3)
0.72 (0.3)
0.68 (0.3)
Betweenness centrality [mean (SD)]
3.63 (4.2)
3.07 (4.2)
3.14 (4.3)
3.26 (3.9)
Popularity (incoming nominations) [mean (SD)]
7.08 (3.6)
6.98 (3.8)
6.89 (3.7)
7.40 (4.0)
Clique member [ (%)]
Not a member
35 (18.0)
155 (82.0)
156 (82.1)
34 (17.9)
Member
49 (14.6)
287 (85.4)
265 (78.9)
71 (21.1)
Perceived support from friends [mean (SD)]f
3.15 (0.7)
3.28 (0.6)
3.27 (0.6)
3.20 (0.6)
Total boys [ (%)]
84 (16.0)
442 (84.0)
421 (80.0)
105 (20.0)
Significant () chi-square and Bonferroni-adjusted pair-wise comparison (-test); c,dsignificant () difference in means (Mann-Whitney -test), faverage general perceived social support index: 1 = received support none of the time to 4 = received support all of the time in increments of 0.25, MVPA: moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, SD: standard deviation.
