The Relationship between Cognitive Social Theory and Physical Activity in Pregnant Women

BackgroundAlthough following a suitable sports program with mild intensity promoted the health of mother's who had healthy pregnancy and caused no harm to the growing fetus; pregnant women usually choose to live a sedentary life. This study was conducted to determine the psychological factors related to physical activity in pregnant women. Materials and MethodsThis descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study was conducted on 201 pregnant women who referred to Isfahan health center, Iran. Data gathering tools included a questionnaire on physical activity during pregnancy and a questionnaire to evaluate variables related to social cognitive theory. The validity of socio-cognitive questionnaires was approved by expert professors and their reliability was approved using internal consistency and Cronbach's alpha (above 0.6). Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16.0) through descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient test and linear regression.Results: The greatest amount of physical activity was related to activities in a moderate level. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between three variables of socio-cognitive theory and several levels of physical activity. There was also a significant relationship between variable of observational learning and physical activity in a moderate level and total activity (P