Investigating the association of self-regulated learning skills and physical activity in Hong Kong Chinese and Scottish adolescents

Zimmerman’s self-regulated learning (SRL) model focusses on how individuals are able to make improvements through a cyclical and systematic method of learning how to adapt to ever-changing environments; however, this model is not widely applied in a physical activity (PA) behaviour change context. As such, this cross-sectional study examined the relationship between six SRL skills (planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, reflection, effort and self-efficacy) and PA in 480 Chinese (aged 11–19 years; M = 14.9, SD = 1.8; male = 61.3%) and 411 Scottish (aged 12–16 years; M = 13.8, SD = 1.4; male = 47.9%) adolescents. Moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA was significantly higher for Scottish (M = 48.58, SD = 26.01, p = .0005) compared to Chinese adolescents (M = 31.14, SD = 22.26). All SRL variables significantly explained a small amount of variance in moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA, in both Chinese (ΔR2 = .021, F(2, 461) = 6.320, p = .005) and Scottish (ΔR2 = .020, F(2, 376) = 8.427, p = .013) adolescents...