Table 3 Categories for statistical analyses
From: Why are some groups physically active and others not? A contrast group analysis in leisure settings
Target Variable | Type | Description |
Physical activity level of group | Rating scale | 1) ‘Very active’ (high intensity activities, such as fast swimming of lanes, playing football/soccer, beach volleyball, ballgames, wild playful running and playing tag games), 2) ‘Moderately active’ (low to moderate intensity activities, such moderate/slow swimming of lanes, water games, playful swimming or diving activities with prolonged breaks, relaxed playing of table-tennis) 3) ‘Rather passive, sometimes in the water’ (sitting around or sunbathing with episodes of standing in the water or being active for short periods of time) 4) ‘Extremely passive’ (lying, sunbathing, sitting in circles on lawn/around pool/shore/on trucks with no active episodes) |
Independent Variable | Type | Description |
Gender-related group composition | Nominal | Male only, female only, mixed |
Observational setting | Nominal | Hawai’i Champagne Pond, Germany Entringen Pool |
Age categories | Nominal | Children (0–12 years), adolescents (13–17 years), young adulthood (18–34 years), middle adulthood (35–60 years), seniors (>  60 years) |
Age -related group composition (Specific) | Nominal | Adults only, mixed, children only, adolescents only |
Age-related group composition (Homogeneous/ heterogeneous) | Nominal | Homogeneous age group (categories see above), mixed-aged group (combinations of different categories) |
Body shape categories | Nominal | 1) Obese (clearly obese with a BMI over 30) 2) Normal weight (lean/normal weight/slightly overweight with a BMI between 18 and 29) 3) Athletic (BMI over 25, but very muscular with low body fat) |
Body shape-related group composition | Nominal | 1) Mainly (at least 80%) athletic 2) Mainly (at least 80%) normal weight 3) Mixed (combination of normal weight/athletic with obese) 4) Mainly (at least 80%) obese |
Group size | Ratio | Total number of individuals in one observed group (for general statistics) |
Group size categories | Ordinal | 1) Two or three members 2) Four or five members 3) Six or seven members or more |
Additional equipment | Nominal | Did a group have equipment such as chairs, sun loungers, barbeques, cooling boxes, sunshades, etc. or not |
Communication level within group | Rating scale | 1) Frequent, lively verbal communication between most group members, 2) Occasional verbal communication, 3) Almost no verbal communication among group members |
Day of observation | Nominal | 1) Workday 2) Weekend |