Abstract
Although parents use social control (SC) tactics to persuade their children to be active after an activity lapse (Wilson & Spink, 2010a), these strategies are not always successful. SC preferences have been implicated as a consideration (Wilson & Spink, 2010b), but it is unclear why these preferences exist. One possibility is that the child's affective response to the parent's SC attempts may help to shape preferences (cf. Sullivan et al., 2010). This study examined SC use and affect as predictors of behaviour change following a lapse. Adolescents (N=63) were asked to recall a previous activity lapse and then identify the SC tactics their parents used. For each tactic, participants also reported how they felt about their parent's use of the tactic (affect) and whether their behaviour changed. Regression results indicated a main effect for affect for negative (sr2=.41, p<.001) and collaborative SC (sr2=.12, p=.001). Specifically, when participants felt positively about the SC, they were more likely to increase their activity level. For positive SC only, a significant interaction emerged between affect and parental SC, sr2=0.09, t(57)=3.1, p<.01. Positive SC use related to the resumption of activity, but only among those who expressed greater positive affect about receiving this form of influence. Given the relationship between SC and affect (Wilson, 2008) and the link between affect and behaviour in this study, future research may wish to test affect as a mediator.
