Physical activity (PA) declines dramatically with age, especially in adolescent girls. Many different types of interventions have been employed to determine the best way to increase adolescent girls’ PA behaviors. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceptions of tailoring and physical activity behavior in the Girls on the Move (GOTM) PA intervention. Adolescent girls (n=510) between the ages of 10-15 years, from two subsequent cohorts, completed 17 weeks of an intervention and were included in the study’s analysis. Girls completed the Perceptions of Tailoring Survey (with two subscales, PA Evaluation and Computer Program) at the mid-point of the intervention (~9 weeks) where they received tailored messages based on their individual answers to questions regarding psychosocial characteristics related to physical activity, including benefits of PA, barriers to PA, self-efficacy, and social support. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that benefits (p<.001), self-efficacy (p<.001), and barriers (p=.035) significantly predicted answers to the PA Evaluation subscale when controlling for SES (p=.008). The PA Evaluation subscale (p=0.005) significantly predicted post-intervention MPA when controlling for ethnicity (p=0.01). Perceptions of tailoring mediated the relationship between perceived barriers of PA and post-intervention MPA. Since girls who had fewer barriers to PA had more positive perceptions of the tailored messages and higher levels of post-intervention MPA, the web-based tailored message component may have moderately influenced change in girls’ PA behaviors.
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