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Abstract
Many individuals are motivated to improve their physical activity levels, but often fail to act upon their intention. Interventions fostering volitional strategies, suchas action planning, coping planning, and self-efficacy beliefs, can help to translate intentions into behavior. This study examines the effectiveness and themechanisms of a combined planning and self-efficacy intervention to promote physical activity among motivated individuals. Participants (N = 883) were randomly assigned to the intervention or to a waiting-list control condition. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that the intervention resulted in significantly more physical activity, higher levels of action planning, coping planning, and volitional self-efficacy beliefs (p < 0.01). In addition, multiple mediation analysis showed that action planning, coping planning, and volitional self-efficacy mediate between the intervention and physical activity. The study shows that the intervention successfully fostered physical activity and unfolds the underlying self-regulatory mechanisms of the intervention's effectiveness.
