Mental Contrasting Physical Activity Study

NCT02615821 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: H14-02120
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 105
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Given the numerous physical and psychological benefits of engaging in regular physical activity (Biddle \& Ekkekakis, 2005; Warburton et al., 2007) and the decrease in students' physical activity levels during the transition from high school to university (Bray \& Born, 2010) it is important for researchers to develop time-and-cost-effective interventions to prevent this drop in physical activity. Intervention research shows mental contrasting (a goal setting strategy) can be taught in a cost-and-time-effective way in order to increase physical activity (Oettingen, 2012). Researchers have also found that individuals who consider the emotional effects of physical activity are more likely to be physically active than those who consider the health-related effects (Rhodes et al., 2009). The purpose of this research is to combine these two approaches to develop and evaluate a novel mental contrasting intervention to increase physical activity among a sample of undergraduate students.

Conditions

Exercise; Attitude to Health; Motivation; Goals

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Change is accelerometry measured moderate-vigorous physical activity from baseline

  Actigraph accelerometers will measure daily activities. A standard 7-day accelerometry monitoring protocol will be used. Participants will also complete three one-week physical activity logs corresponding to the three accelerometry periods. In these logs, participants will record the time the monitor is on and off, in addition to recording all activities performed with or without the monitor.

  One week immediately following the intervention

• Change is accelerometry measured moderate-vigorous physical activity from baseline

  Actigraph accelerometers will measure daily activities. A standard 7-day accelerometry monitoring protocol will be used. Participants will also complete three one-week physical activity logs corresponding to the three accelerometry periods. In these logs, participants will record the time the monitor is on and off, in addition to recording all activities performed with or without the monitor.

  Four-week follow-up

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Change in Godin's Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ)

  Change between baseline and four-week follow-up

• Change is Affective and Instrumental Physical Activity Judgements

  Changes between baseline, the week immediately following the intervention, and a four-week follow-up.

Study Arms (3)

Affective Mental Contrasting

EXPERIMENTAL

Before the goal formation or mental contrasting activities, participants will receive information about the affective benefits of exercising (e.g. regular physical activity has been shown to reduce stress, physical activity is enjoyable), and related research support including appropriate references. During the mental contrasting component of the activity the prompts will remain the same as the standard condition, with minor variations in questions in order to elicit affective judgements. Specifically, the affective condition will include the additional prompts "Why might you find exercise to be enjoyable, pleasant, exciting, or fun?" for eliciting outcomes, and "Why might you find exercise to be unenjoyable, unpleasant, boring, or miserable?" for eliciting obstacles.

Behavioral: Mental Contrasting

Instrumental Mental Contrasting

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Before the goal formation or mental contrasting activities,participants will receive information about the instrumental benefits of exercising (e.g., regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing cancer) and related research support, again including appropriate references. During the mental contrasting component of the activity the prompts will remain the same as the standard condition, with minor variations in questions in order to elicit either instrumental judgements. Specifically, the instrumental conditions will include the prompts "Why might you find exercise to be useful, advantageous, beneficial, or important?" for eliciting outcomes, and "Why might you find exercise to be unimportant, useless, inconvenient, or detrimental?" for eliciting obstacles.

Behavioral: Mental Contrasting

Standard Mental Contrasting

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

In the standard condition, the space where the affective and instrumental benefits of physical activity were listed in the instrumental and affective conditions, will be left blank in the standard condition, and no additional prompting questions will be given, allowing for the idiosyncratic identification of obstacles and outcome.

Behavioral: Mental Contrasting

Interventions

Mental Contrasting BEHAVIORAL

n the mental contrasting activity participants will be asked by the researcher to consider the best outcome associated with engaging in physical activity, as well as the obstacles they may encounter while completing the activity. The first question will ask participants to name the most positive outcome of realizing their goal (e.g., feeling more awake during classes; weight loss). The second question will ask participants to name the most critical obstacle (e.g., feeling tired; rain) to reaching their goal.

Affective Mental Contrasting; Instrumental Mental Contrasting; Standard Mental Contrasting

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: female
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Individuals will be eligible to participate if they are female, inactive (i.e., engage in moderate-vigorous intensity physical activity for more than 30 minutes, less than three times a week), studying for an undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, and are able to read and converse in English.

You may not qualify if:

• Participants will be excluded if they have any self-reported physical health conditions using the online version of the PAR-Q+ (http://eparmedx.com/?page\_id=75) that would restrict them from increasing their physical activity behaviours at the time of the intervention.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of British Columbia: lead

Study Sites (1)

Psychology of Exercise, Health, and Physical Activity Laboratory, University of British Columbia

Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z1, Canada

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Ruissen GR, Rhodes RE, Crocker PRE, Beauchamp MR. Affective mental contrasting to enhance physical activity: A randomized controlled trial. Health Psychol. 2018 Jan;37(1):51-60. doi: 10.1037/hea0000551. Epub 2017 Oct 5.

  PMID: 28981303 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Motor Activity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Study Officials

• Mark Beauchamp

  University of British Columbia

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 19, 2015
• First Posted: November 26, 2015
• Study Start: January 1, 2015
• Primary Completion: November 1, 2015
• Study Completion: November 1, 2015
• Last Updated: November 26, 2015

Record last verified: 2015-11

Locations

CA (1)