Exercise Preferences and Environmental Contexts: A Response to King and Wilcox

Excerpt

In the spirit of healthy debate, and to advance understanding within the field, we have chosen to respond to King and Wilcox’s [1] commentary related to our article [2] concerning the exercise preferences of adults. In our article, we reported the results of a study in which adults across the age spectrum indicated (a) a positive preference for exercising in group-based settings that are age-matched, as well as (b) a general dislike for exercising in group settings that are primarily comprised of adults dissimilar in age to themselves. We also posited that the findings from our study could shed light on why previous studies, such as those by King and her colleagues [3‐5], found that older adults reported a relative dislike of group-based settings (in comparison to exercising on their own). Specifically, we highlighted that because the studies by King and her colleagues did not consider age-matched ‘types’ of groups in their queries of preferences for exercise contexts, there is a danger that positive group preferences may have become masked. …