Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Nov;34(11):1294-1313.
doi: 10.1080/08870446.2019.1604954. Epub 2019 Apr 23.

Physical activity: the relative associations with cognitive and affective risk beliefs

Eva Janssen  1 , Erika A Waters  2
Affiliations

Physical activity: the relative associations with cognitive and affective risk beliefs

Eva Janssen et al. Psychol Health. 2019 Nov.

Abstract

Objective: The role of affectively oriented risk beliefs in explaining health behaviors has not been examined in the context of physical activity or in diverse study populations. We evaluated whether affective risk beliefs account for unique variance in physical activity intentions and behavior above and beyond that accounted for by cognitive risk beliefs. Design: A cross-sectional survey of socio-demographically diverse US residents (N = 835; 46.4% no college training; 46.7% minority racial/ethnic ancestry; 42.6% men). Main outcome measures: Physical activity intentions and behavior. Results: Hierarchical linear regressions showed that affective risk beliefs accounted for variance in physical activity intentions beyond that predicted by socio-demographics and cognitive risk beliefs (F-change ps<.001). Specifically, intentions were higher among people with higher anticipated regret (ps<.001) and with higher absolute feelings of risk (ps<.05) or worry (ps<.05). There was an indirect relationship between perceived absolute likelihood and intentions through anticipated regret and feelings of risk. Neither cognitive nor affective risk beliefs accounted for variance in physical activity behavior (F-change ps>.05), but unsurprisingly, behavior was positively associated with physical activity intentions (p<.001). Conclusion: Future interventions could target affective risk beliefs-particularly anticipated regret-to increase intentions, and then add other intervention components to bridge the intention-behavior gap.

Keywords: Affect; beliefs; physical activity; risk perception; theory.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Abraham C, & Sheeran P (2004). Deciding to exercise: The role of anticipated regret. British journal of health psychology, 9(2), 269–278. - PubMed
    1. Ajzen I (1985). From intentions to action: A theory of planned behavior. In Kuhl J & Beckman J (Eds.), Action Control: From Cognitions to Behaviors (pp. 11–39). New York: Springer.
    1. Bechara A, Damasio H, Tranel D, & Damasio AR (1997). Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy. Science, 275(1293), 1293–1295. - PubMed
    1. Becker MH (1974). The health belief model and personal health behavior. Health Education Monographs, 2, 324–508.
    1. Brewer NT, DeFrank JT, & Gilkey MB (2016). Anticipated regret and health behavior: A meta-analysis. Health Psychol, 35(11), 1264–1275. 10.1037/hea0000294 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types