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The purpose of the present study was to compare attitudes toward body weight and physical activity in both regular-weight and overweight/obese children and adolescents, and assessing relations between attitudes and self-esteem, motivation for physical activity, life satisfaction and level of physical activity. A total of 126 children (Mage = 12.2, SD = 3.4), divided into two subsamples (i.e., overweight/obese, N = 44, and regular-weight), voluntarily participated in the study. A series of univariate analyses of variance was conducted to examine the differences in the study variables across the subsamples. Correlational analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among the variables. The results indicated that obese/overweight participants expressed a more positive implicit attitude toward the thin category than regular-weight participants. Furthermore, among overweight/obese participants, implicit attitude toward physical activity was significantly negatively correlated with explicit attitude toward physical activity and general self-esteem. Significant differences between obese/overweight and regular-weight participants indicated that the status in terms of weight played a key role in attitudes toward the explored constructs.

(1) Background: Despite health benefits of engaging in regular physical activity (PA), adolescents fail to achieve the recommended PA practice (especially among girls with low socio-economic position). Researchers have been prompted to adopt models of social cognition to help identify the role of psychological factors in influencing PA and sedentary behaviors. Thus, this study examined the effects of an intervention promoting PA, reducing sedentary activity among adolescent girls from low-incomes communities, and explored the relationships between core constructs of salient theoretical frameworks (self-determination theory, theory of planned behavior, implicit and explicit attitude towards PA, and sedentary behaviors); (2) Methods: An intervention was delivered to 28 adolescent girls. They reported their scores on a variety of core psychological constructs grounded within the aforementioned theoretical frameworks as well as on several outcomes, such as objective PA (pedometers) and perceived mental and physical health. These scores were gathered both before and after the 8-weeks program; (3) Results: Results revealed changes on external regulation and implicit attitudes toward sedentary behaviors from before to after the program. However, objective PA behavior did not change; (4) Conclusions: Future studies are encouraged to further explore mechanisms of behavior change derived from integrated and socio-ecological theories.