Abstract
Social control (SC) is a regulatory influence that parents exert in an attempt to increase their child's activity (Wilson & Spink, 2011). In research to-date, results revealed that collaborative SC use by parents has been associated with positive behavior change in adolescents following an activity lapse (Wilson & Spink, 2010). The purpose of the current study was two-fold: First, to extend the examination of parental use of SC to children. Second, as previous results have examined SC use following a lapse, this study aimed to determine whether SC use could be extended to increasing activity behavior generally. Specifically, this study examined how children's behavior changed in response to parents' use of collaborative SC as well as explored possible age effects. Parents (n=48) of children age 2-18 years responded to an online survey that assessed child's age, parents' reported use of SC (Wilson & Spink, 2010) and perceived behavior change (Wilson & Spink, 2010). To predict behavior change, age (step 1), SC use (step 2) and the interaction (step 3) were included. Both step 1 (p=.001) and step 2 (p<.001) were significant with use of collaborative SC and age explaining 53% of the variance in behavior change. Parents who reported greater use of SC (b=.70, p<.001) and who had younger children (b=-.12, p=.02) reported more positive behavior change. These findings extend the positive effects of collaborative SC use to children as well as to regulating activity behavior in general.
