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Mediators of Physical Activity Adherence: Results from an Action Control Intervention in Couples

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Behavior change interventions targeting self-regulation skills have generally shown promising effects. However, the psychological working mechanisms remain poorly understood.

Purpose

We examined theory-based mediators of a randomized controlled trial in couples targeting action control (i.e., continuously monitoring and evaluating an ongoing behavior). Self-reported action control was tested as the main mediating mechanism of physical activity adherence, and in addition self-efficacy and received social support from the partner.

Methods

Overweight individuals (N = 121) and their heterosexual partners were randomly allocated to an intervention (information + action control text messages) or a control group (information only). Across a period of 28 days, participants reported on action control, self-efficacy, and received support in end-of-day diaries, and wore triaxial accelerometers to assess stable between-person differences in mediators and the outcome adherence to recommended daily activity levels (≥30 min of moderate activity in bouts of at least 10 min).

Results

On average, participants in the intervention group showed higher physical activity adherence levels and higher action control, self-efficacy, and received support compared to participants in the control group. Action control and received support emerged as mediating mechanisms, explaining 19.7 and 24.6% of the total intervention effect, respectively, in separate analyses, and 13.9 and 22.2% when analyzed simultaneously. No evidence emerged for self-efficacy as mediator.

Conclusions

Action control and received support partly explain the effects of an action control intervention on physical activity adherence levels. Continued research is needed to better understand what drives intervention effects to guide innovative and effective health promotion.

Trial Registration Number

(controlled-trials.com ISRCTN15705531)

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Acknowledgements

This project (PP00P1_133632/1) and the first author (P2BEP1_158975) were funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Corina Berli PhD

    Present address: University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 219 Schermerhorn, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue MC: 5501, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Corina Berli PhD, Gertraud Stadler PhD & Niall Bolger PhD

  2. University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Urte Scholz PhD

  3. University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

    Gertraud Stadler PhD

  4. New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Patrick E. Shrout PhD

Authors
  1. Corina Berli PhD
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  2. Gertraud Stadler PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Corina Berli PhD.

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Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards

Authors’ Statement of Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards Authors Berli, Stadler, Shrout, Bolger, and Scholz declare that they have no conflict of interest. All procedures, including the informed consent process, were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

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Berli, C., Stadler, G., Shrout, P.E. et al. Mediators of Physical Activity Adherence: Results from an Action Control Intervention in Couples. ann. behav. med. (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-017-9923-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-017-9923-z

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