How does exercising make you feel? The associations between positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and vitality

Filipe Rodrigues,Tânia Faustino,Abel Santos,Eduardo Teixeira,Luís Cid,D Monteiro

doi:10.1080/1612197x.2021.1907766

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between regular physical exercise and affective responses to the behaviour, and to investigate the relationship with life satisfaction, self-esteem, and vitality. In total, 264 Portuguese exercisers (female = 157) aged between 18 and 69 years (M = 12.93; SD = 1.49) were considered for analysis in this study. Participants were regular exercisers with a mean year experience of 5.73 (SD = 3.19). Looking at the results, the structural model displayed acceptable fit to the data: χ 2(314) = 515.904; p < .001; CFI = .928; TLI = .919; RMSEA .049 [.042, .057]. Overall, significant direct effects were found as theoretically proposed, namely: exercise frequency displayed a positive and significant association with positive affect; positive affect was positively associated with life satisfaction, self-esteem, and subjective vitality; and, negative affect was negatively correlated with life satisfaction, self-esteem, and subjective vitality. Exercise frequency had a positive and significant indirect effect on life satisfaction, self-esteem, and subjective vitality via positive affect, but not via negative affect.

Highlights

It is well established in the literature that engagement in regular physical activity comes with physical and mental benefits (Warburton & Bredin, 2019)
Positive affect is positively associated with the feeling of life satisfaction, self-esteem, and subjective vitality, while negative affect shows a negative association with these three outcomes in the context of exercise
Affect is understood to be a complex phenomenon, exercise frequency seems to be an important determinant of the affective response individuals report during physical exercise

Summary

Introduction

It is well established in the literature that engagement in regular physical activity comes with physical and mental benefits (Warburton & Bredin, 2019). While motivation has been pointed out as a major contributor to physical activity participation, Ekkekakis and Dafermos (2012) have questioned the usefulness of motivational and cognitive models in explaining this behaviour. Their research showed that social-cognitive models typically only account for approximately 25% of the variance in exercise and physical activity behaviour, which limits the creation of effective. Exercise could be better understood by considering the affective components associated with physical activity behaviour. Existing literature (Teixeira et al, 2018a, 2018b) has explored the influence of regular exercise to better understand the affective response, while other outcomes such as subjective vitality and self-esteem are still under-researched in the context of interest

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