Latino Civic Group Participation, Social Networks, and Physical Activity

Objectives: We examined whether social networks and resource awareness for physical activity may mediate the relationship between civic group participation and physical activity. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of a randomly selected sample of 335 Latinos (mean age 42.1 +/- 16.4 years) participating in the San Diego Prevention Research Center's 2009 Household Community Survey. Serial multiple mediation analysis tested the hypothesis that civic group participation is associated with meeting physical activity recommendations through an indirect mechanism of larger social networks followed by greater knowledge of physical activity community resources. Results: The indirect effects of level of civic group participation as well as religious, health, neighborhood, or arts group participation on meeting national physical activity recommendations were significant in models testing pathways through social network size and physical activity resource awareness. The direct effect was only significant for health group indicating that participating in a health group predicted physical activity independent of social network size and awareness of physical activity resources. Conclusion: Belonging to civic groups may promote physical activity engagement through social network diffusion of information on community physical activity resources which has implications for health.