Evaluating timeframe expectancies in physical activity social cognition: are short- and long-term motives different?

Promoting maintenance of regular physical activity (PA) is a public health priority; however, to the authors' knowledge, no researchers to date have examined whether the expectancies of proximal PA enactment are similar to the expectancies of longer maintenance. Thus, the authors' purpose in this study was to evaluate whether PA expectancies, measured with constructs of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), varied as a function of time frame (no time frame, next week, next month, next 6 months). Undergraduate students (N=409) completed randomly distributed self-report measures of the TPB; the authors then compared results across the 4 groups (formed on the basis of time frame).

Motivational antecedent beliefs of endurance, strength, and flexibility activities.

Research into the correlates of physical activity has focused almost exclusively on physical activity as an omnibus construct. Health Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine, however, advocate physical activity in terms of performing regular endurance, strength, and flexibility activities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the absolute and relative contributions of behavioral, normative, and control beliefs associated with endurance, strength, and flexibility activities within a theory of planned behavior (TPB) structure.

A multicomponent model of the theory of planned behaviour.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the measurement and predictive structure of multiple components of attitude (affective and instrumental), subjective norm (injunctive and descriptive) and an alternative measure of perceived behavioural control (PBC; skills/ability, opportunity, and resources) in the exercise domain. An additional purpose of the study was to compare the validity of the alternative PBC measure to a standard PBC measure for predicting exercise intention and behaviour. Participants were 220 undergraduates who completed measures of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and a 2-week follow-up of exercise behaviour.