Social support and the physical activity behaviours of people with a brain injury.

ABSTRACT

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To examine the influence of social support on the physical activity behaviours of individual's with a traumatic brain injury. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The paper defines social support as a multi-dimensional construct and reviews relevant literature describing how the type and source of social support changes post-brain injury. These findings are then applied to a physical activity domain with the use of a conceptual framework. Discussion finally focuses on research applications and appropriate measures of social support within a physical activity environment. CONCLUSIONS: This paper will provide physical activity programmers with an understanding of how social support influences physical activity participation, a conceptual framework to guide programming and appropriate measures of social support for research purposes.