Leading ‘us’ to be active: The positive relationship between social identity leadership, group identification, and physical activity participation

Growing evidence indicates that when people develop a strong social identity (i.e. a strong self - definition) as a member of a particular physical activity group (e.g. a sports team or exercise group) it has positive implications for their participation in group - relevant activity. Despite this, the relationship between physical activity leaders engagement in social identity leadership — a theoretical perspective which asserts that successful leadership depends on a leaders capacity to create, rep resent, advance, and embed a shared sense of identity (i.e. a shared sense of 'us') among group members — and group members' participation has not been tested. Indeed, no studies have examined the relationship between any particular type of leadership and group members' participation in these settings. Building on promising findings in other domains, we hypothesized positive associations between (1) group members' perceptions of their physical activity leaders engagement in social identity leadership and their own group identification, and (2) members' group identification and their physical activity participation. We also hypothesized an indirect effect of perceptions of leader engagement in social identity leadership on members' participation through group identification.