Linking Exercise Intention to Exercise Action: The Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy

Abstract

As physical exercise benefits both physical and psychological health of college students, it is important to promote the habit of physical exercise among them. This study adopted the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) model to understand the exercise intention-action link and determine the moderating role of self-efficacy. We recruited 242 students from a university in China and asked them to complete a six-wave survey. The survey results indicated that exercise intention was positively related to both coping planning and action planning, which pave the way to performing the action of exercise. However, such mediation effects varied under conditions of self-efficacy. Participants with high self-efficacy exhibited stronger relationships between intention and planning, and between planning and action. The study results suggest that planning has a time-lagged mediation effect in the relationship between intention and action. Additionally, the findings shed light on the moderating role of self-efficacy, which can be useful in developing health-promotion strategies for college students.

Keywords: health action process approach; intention; physical exercise; planning; self-efficacy.

Figure 1

Conceptual model. t, t+1, and t+2 indicate that the independent variables were measured at time t, the mediators were measured at lagged time t+1, and the dependent variable measured at lagged timet+2.

Figure 2

The results of mediation model. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001; t, t+1, and t+2 indicate that the independent variables were measured at time t, the mediators were measured at lagged time t+1, and the dependent variable measured at lagged time t+2.

Figure 3

The results of simple slope analysis. The moderating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between exercise intention and coping planning (A), between exercise intention and action planning (B), between coping planning and exercise action (C), and between action planning and exercise action (D).

Figure 4

The results of moderated mediation model. Note: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01; t, t+1, and t+2 indicate that the independent variables were measured at time t, the mediators were measured at lagged time t+1, and the dependent variable measured at lagged time t+2.