Social Participation, Flow and Situational Involvement in Recreational Physical Activity (Report‪)‬

Introduction Despite significant emphasis on physical activity promotion and a general awareness of exercise benefits, population-wide activity levels remain low and perhaps in a state of decline (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001, 2003). Individual determinants of behavior, including factors such as self efficacy, demographic variables, and physical characteristics have received considerable attention in the literature (Sallis & Owen, 1999). However, recent reviews have criticized past research for its overwhelmingly individual focus when examining the influences on physical activity patterns (Giles-Corti & Donovan, 2002; Sallis, Kraft & Linton, 2002). Trost, Neville, Bauman, Sallis and Brown (2002) suggested that factors affecting physical activity can be divided into six categories: a) demographic and biological factors, b) psychological, cognitive and emotional factors, c) behavioral attributes and skills, d) social and cultural factors, e) physical environment factors and, f) physical activity characteristics.