Background
Affect may be important for understanding physical activity behavior.
Purpose
To examine whether affective valence (i.e., good/bad feelings) during and immediately following a brief walk predicts concurrent and future physical activity.
Methods
At months 6 and 12 of a 12-month physical activity promotion trial, healthy low-active adults (N = 146) reported affective valence during and immediately following a 10-min treadmill walk. Dependent variables were self-reported minutes/week of lifestyle physical activity at months 6 and 12.
Results
Affect reported during the treadmill walk was cross-sectionally (month 6: β = 28.6, p = 0.008; month 12: β = 26.6, p = 0.021) and longitudinally (β = 14.8, p = 0.030) associated with minutes/week of physical activity. Affect reported during a 2-min cool down was cross-sectionally (month 6: β = 21.1, p = 0.034; month 12: β = 30.3, p < 0.001), but not longitudinally associated with minutes/week of physical activity. Affect reported during a postcool-down seated rest was not associated with physical activity.
Conclusions
During-behavior affect is predictive of concurrent and future physical activity behavior.