Self-Regulation and Implicit Attitudes Toward Physical Activity Influence Exercise Behavior

Abstract

Dual-process models of health behavior posit that implicit and explicit attitudes independently drive healthy behaviors. Prior evidence indicates that implicit attitudes may be related to weekly physical activity (PA) levels, but the extent to which self-regulation attenuates this link remains unknown. This study examined the associations between implicit attitudes and self-reported PA during leisure time among 150 highly active young adults and evaluated the extent to which effortful control (one aspect of self-regulation) moderated this relationship. Results indicated that implicit attitudes toward exercise were unrelated to average workout length among individuals with higher effortful control. However, those with lower effortful control and more negative implicit attitudes reported shorter average exercise sessions compared with those with more positive attitudes. Implicit and explicit attitudes were unrelated to total weekly PA. A combination of poorer self-regulation and negative implicit attitudes may leave individuals vulnerable to mental and physical health consequences of low PA.

The association between implicit attitudes toward physical activity and physical activity behaviour: a systematic review and correlational meta-analysis

“…To illustrate, two studies indicate that the relationship between implicit attitudes and physical activity could be moderated by dispositional variables. Padin et al (2017) found that implicit attitudes toward exercise were associated to physical activity among students with low, but not high, effortful control (one aspect of self-regulation). It may be that individuals with higher capacity for self-regulation relied less on implicit attitudes toward physical activity to guide behavior than those with lower self-regulation.…”

“…To this point, studies have demonstrated that implicit attitudes are directly associated with the amount of physical activity people engage in, both selfreported or measured with accelerometers, even after controlling for the variability explained by explicit processes (see Rebar et al, 2016;Schinkoeth & Antoniewicz, 2017, for reviews). Indeed, several studies found that implicit and explicit attitudes toward physical activity are mostly unrelated (e.g., Brand & Antoniewicz, 2016;Hyde, Doerksen, Ribeiro, & Conroy, 2010) and independently associated with physical activity behavior (e.g., Calitri et al, 2009;Chevance, Caudroit et al, 2017;Padin et al, 2017). However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence yet of indirect associations between implicit attitudes and physical activity through interactions with explicit processes (see for example Muschalik, Elfeddali, Candel, & de Vries, 2018;Chevance, Caudroit et al, 2018), or other implicit processes (e.g., attentional bias, approach-avoidance tendencies, see…”

Physical Activity After Breast Cancer Surgery: Does Depression Make Exercise Feel More Effortful than It Actually Is?

“…Additionally, depressed individuals appear to have deficits in self-regulation [55][56][57]. A combination of negative attitudes and poor self-regulatory skills, in particular, may leave a depressed individual especially vulnerable to decreased physical activity, as previous findings suggest that individuals with poor self-regulatory capacity and negative implicit attitudes have shorter average workout durations [58].…”

Testing Attitudes, Social Desirability and Behavioral Regulations as Moderators of Implicit-Explicit Exercise Cognition Discrepancies in Iranian Students

“…Researchers have found that executive functioning moderated relationships between automatic approach and avoid tendencies to exercise and activity behaviour or intentions to be active (Chevance, Yannick, Heraud, & Boiche, 2018; Cheval, Sarrazin, Isoard-Gautheur, Radel, & Friese, 2016) (48,49). Others have also found that participants with lower automatic evaluations, combined with less ability to control their actions exercised for less time, but this relationship did not exist for participants with greater ability to exert cognitive control (Padin, Emery, Vasey & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2017) (26). The results of the current study may indicate that participants who were less motivated by guilt or obligation and positive automatic evaluations were more motivated to be active for health outcomes.…”

“…Hyde and colleagues found that introspective access moderated relationships between (IEDs) and (PA) (6) while Berry and colleagues showed a moderating role for identi ed regulations related to (IEDs) measuring associations with appearance (7). Eeffortful control (one aspect of self-regulation) was found to moderate associations between implicit evaluations and self-reported (PA) during leisure time among 150 highly active young adults (26).…”