Associations between Aspects of Friendship Networks, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behaviour among Adolescents
Table 2
Descriptive statistics for the sociodemographic characteristics, general perceived social support from friends, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour for girls ().
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
22 (10.3)
192 (89.7)
156 (72.9)
58 (27.1)a
13 years
11 (6.2)
167 (93.8)
140 (78.7)
38 (21.3)
14 years and older
6 (4.2)
137 (95.8)
122 (85.3)
21 (14.7)a
Family affluence [ (%)]
Low
6 (6.7)
84 (93.3)
70 (77.8)
20 (22.2)
Medium
14 (5.9)
224 (94.1)
186 (78.2)
52 (21.8)
High
19 (9.2)
188 (90.8)
162 (78.3)
45 (21.7)
Length of time in Canada [ (%)]
More than 5 years
3 (5.3)
54 (94.7)
43 (75.4)
14 (24.6)
5 years or less
36 (7.5)
442 (92.5)
375 (78.5)
103 (21.5)
Number of times moved last year [ (%)]
Did not move
28 (6.6)
397 (93.4)
336 (79.1)
89 (20.9)
Moved at least once
11 (10.0)
99 (90.0)
82 (74.5)
28 (25.5)
Social network characteristics
Incoming close friend nominations [ (%)]
Received ≥1 nomination
39 (7.2)
503 (92.8)
425 (78.4)
117 (21.6)
Received no nominations
0 (0.0)
12 (100.0)
11 (91.7)
1 (8.3)
Proportion active close friends [mean (SD)]
0.43 (0.4)c
0.25 (0.4)c
0.24 (0.3)d
0.34 (0.4)d
Proportion sedentary close friends [mean (SD)]
0.75 (0.3)
0.74 (0.3)
0.76 (0.3)
0.70 (0.3)
Betweenness centrality [mean (SD)]
2.68 (3.0)
3.16 (4.0)
3.26 (4.0)
2.66 (3.5)
Popularity (incoming nominations) [mean (SD)]
6.36 (3.1)
6.53 (3.5)
6.67 (3.6)e
5.97 (2.7)e
Clique member [ (%)]
Not a member
9 (6.1)
138 (93.9)
115 (78.2)
32 (21.8)
Member
30 (7.7)
358 (92.3)
303 (78.1)
85 (21.9)
Perceived support from friends [mean (SD)]f
3.54 (0.6)
3.53 (0.5)
3.53 (0.5)
3.53 (0.5)
Total girls [ (%)]
39 (7.3)
496 (92.7)
418 (78.1)
117 (21.9)
Significant () chi-square and Bonferroni-adjusted pair-wise comparison (-test); c,d,esignificant () 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.
