Abstract
Until recently, most studies investigating the acute relationships between affective and physical feeling states and physical activity were conducted in controlled laboratory settings, whose results might not translate well to everyday life. This review was among the first attempts to synthesize current evidence on the acute (e.g., within a few hours) relationships between affective and physical feeling states and physical activity from studies conducted in free-living, naturalistic settings in non-clinical populations. A systematic literature search yielded 14 eligible studies for review. Six studies tested the relationship between affective states and subsequent physical activity; findings from these studies suggest that positive affective states were positively associated with physical activity over the next few hours while negative affective states had no significant association. Twelve studies tested affective states after physical activity and yielded consistent evidence for physical activity predicting higher positive affect over the next few hours. Further, there was some evidence that physical activity was followed by a higher level of energetic feelings in the next few hours. The evidence for physical activity reducing negative affect in the next few hours was inconsistent and inconclusive. Future research in this area should consider recruiting more representative study participants, utilizing higher methodological standards for assessment (i.e., electronic devices combined with accelerometry), reporting patterns of missing data, and investigating pertinent moderators and mediators (e.g., social and physical context, intensity, psychological variables). Knowledge gained from this topic could offer valuable insights for promoting daily physical activity adoption and maintenance in non-clinical populations.
Highlights
Despite the health-promoting effects of physical activity (Penedo and Dahn, 2005), most individuals are physically inactive in their daily lives (Bauman et al, 2011)
The fact that only a limited number of studies were included in our review suggests that more research is needed to better understand the links between affective states and free-living physical activity, especially whether and how affective and physical feeling states might act as a predictor for daily physical activity
Findings from this review show that positive affective states could potentially lead to being more physically active subsequently, this positive relationship did not always reach significance
Summary
Despite the health-promoting effects of physical activity (Penedo and Dahn, 2005), most individuals are physically inactive in their daily lives (Bauman et al, 2011). Affect, Feeling States and Physical Activity engage in behaviors that provide pleasure (e.g., Bentham, 1962), or from which they anticipate a positive affective response (e.g., Mellers, 2000). A better understanding of whether affective states predict physical activity (and vice versa) could have important implications for promoting everyday physical activity, especially long-term physical activity maintenance. Previous studies on this topic usually use a variety of terms such as “affect,” “emotion,” and “mood” to describe people’s psychological experience. Some physical activity researchers use the term “physical feeling states” to capture sensory experiences such as energy and fatigue that may be distinct from positive/negative affective states (Dunton et al, 2014). The current review aimed to answer the following questions among non-clinical populations: (1) Do affective and physical feeling states predict subsequent physical activity levels in freeliving situations? (2) Does free-living physical activity lead to improvement in subsequent affective and physical feeling states (e.g., increases in positive affect, decreases in negative affect)?
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