Under pressure to exercise: a cross-sectional study of characteristics and predictors of compulsive exercise in early adolescents

Table 2 CET total score below (CET < 15) and above (CET ≥ 15) cut off points by participants characteristics and measures

Participants’ characteristics and measures	CET < 15	CET ≥ 15	Diff	ES^a
Continuous variables: mean (SD)	(n = 530)	(n = 42)	t	d
Age, years	13.9 (0.3)	13.9 (0.3)	0.1	0.00
BREQ amotivation	0.2 (0.5)	0.4 (0.9)	2.3*	0.23
BREQ external regulation	0.4 (0.6)	0.9 (0.9)	4.8***	0.65
BREQ introjected regulation	1.1 (1.0)	2.1 (1.3)	6.0***	0.86
BREQ identified regulation	2.1 (1.1)	2.7 (1.3)	3.1**	0.50
BREQ intrinsic motivation	2.6 (1.2)	2.6 (1.3)	0.4	0.00
HRQoL Physical Health	46.3 (10.6)	48.9 (12.0)	1.5	0.23
HRQoL psychological health and wellbeing	49.8 (10.4)	47.0 (14.5)	1.6	0.22
HRQoL parent relations and autonomy	54.7 (11.8)	57.4 (11.8)	1.4	0.23
HRQoL social support and peers	49.9 (10.9)	54.3 (13.0)	2.5*	0.37
HRQOL school environment	50.8 (11.3)	52.8 (14.3)	1.1	0.16

	(n = 499)	(n = 42)
BMI, kg/m²	20.3 (3.3)	21.9 (4.2)	3.1**	0.42

	(n = 459)	(n = 39)
Physical fitness, meters	1007.9 (108.8)	971.2 (130.1)	2.0*	0.31

	(n = 297)	(n = 20)
PA level, cpm	841.7 (320.5)	840.8 (195.1)	0.01	0.00

Categorical variables: n (%)			χ² (1)
Sex: boy/girl	262(91)/268(94)	26(9)/16(6)	2.4	0.06
Exercise arena: organized sports	494 (93)	37 (88)	1.5	0.05
Exercise arena: fitness training centre	71 (13)	11 (26)	5.2*	0.10
Use of exercise monitoring tools	174 (33)	25 (60)	12.2***	0.15
Weight loss attempts past 12 months	96 (18)	23 (55)	31.7***	0.24
Weight gain attempts past 12 months	58 (11)	5 (12)	0.04	0.01
Meet PA recommendations^b	105 (35)	9 (45)	0.8	0.05

BMI body mass index (kg/m²). PA physical activity. Cpm counts per minute. BREQ Behavioural Regulation of Exercise Questionnaire. CET Compulsive Exercise Test
*p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001
^aEffect size: Cohen’s d (continuous variables) and r coefficient (categorical variables)

ISSN: 2050-2974