Abstract
Aims: Physical activity is an effective way for people to cope with stress. However, people often decrease their physical activity in response to stressors. Therefore, we aimed to understand the relationship between perceived stress and physical activity from an outcome expectancies perspective and investigated the moderating role of future orientation in this relationship. Methods: This study recruited 425 students who completed a three-wave survey at six-week intervals. A moderated mediation model was used to examine the mediating effects of outcome expectancies and the moderating effects of future orientation. Results: The results indicated that outcome expectancies mediated the relationship between perceived stress and physical activity. This relationship was moderated by future orientation. In particular, the mediating effects were significant for people with a high future orientation, but not for those with a low future orientation. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the adaptive function of future orientation in response to general stress. Importantly, the link between perceived stress and reduced physical activity could be mitigated by encouraging people to focus on future consequences. Future studies should consider developing intervention strategies that help those struggling with stressful contexts.
Highlights
The results showed that there were no significant mean differences between the follow-up sample and the drop-out sample
Our results showed that future orientation moderated the between perceived stress and outcome expectancies
As per H3, our results showed that future orientation moderated the mediation effect of outcome expectancies on the relationship between perceived stress and physical activities
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The rise of health problems among college students has attracted increasing attention in China [1]. One dominant factor that results in physical and psychological problems is perceived stress, which leads to various unhealthy behaviors, such as reduced physical activity [2]. Participation in physical activity is widely regarded as an effective strategy for coping with stress [3]
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