The relationship between fitness app use and physical activity behavior is mediated by exercise identity

Abstract

The relationship between self-selected fitness application software use (henceforth, fitness apps) and physical activity behavior is not well studied, nor is the role that exercise identity may play in predicting fitness app use. This study examined these relationships by evaluating the ability of exercise identity to mediate a hypothesized positive association between fitness app use and physical activity behavior. Data were collected from college students (N = 310) who completed survey instruments assessing: physical activity behavior, exercise identity, and fitness app use. The following groups were established: apps group (those with fitness apps) and no apps (those without fitness apps). As hypothesized, the apps group participated in significantly more physical activity than the no apps group. Additionally, the apps group reported significantly greater exercise identity. Exercise identity was significantly and positively associated with physical activity. Finally, when controlling for exercise identity via partial correlation, physical activity differences between app groups became non-significant. This suggests that differences in physical activity between participants with and without a fitness app on their cell phone were mediated by exercise identity. In other words, exercise identity may serve as the explanatory mechanism behind the observed difference in physical activity across the two app groups.