A multiple mediation analysis of the association between asynchronous use of music and running performance

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine if the effects of asynchronous use of music on running performance are directly and/or indirectly carried through psychological, psychophysical, and psychophysiological benefits. Following a standardized music selection procedure, 20 healthy undergraduate students (10 males, 10 females) completed a 30-min treadmill run at perceived moderate intensity while listening to music (135–140 beats per minute) or under a no-music condition in a randomized order. Participants’ affective valence, arousal, perceived exertion, heart rate during the run, and running distance were measured in both trials. A mediation analysis was conducted for 40 data collected from the 20 participants under two conditions (no music; music) with a parallel mediation model in which affective valence, arousal, heart rate, and perceived exertion were specified as mediators. A significant indirect effect of affective valence was observed for running distance. The present finding supports the notion that the relationship between asynchronous use of music and running distance is mediated by psychological benefits.

KEYWORDS:

• Asynchronous
• exercise
• mediation analysis
• moderate intensity
• performance
• treadmill

Acknowledgments

The authors thank participants in the study for their time. Without their voluntary participation, this study would not have been possible. The authors are also grateful to anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the earlier versions of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the study and no professional relationships with companies or manufacturers who will benefit from the results of the present study. We also declare that the results of the study are presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.

Notes

¹ VO_2max was also calculated by using the Flouris et al.’s (2005) formula (VO_2max = running speed × 6.65–35.8) for completeness. Confirming the two VO_2max values were very highly correlated (r =.99), VO_2max based on Lẻger et al.’s (1988) formula was reported in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially funded by National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Project Nos. RI 10/12 MK; OER 24/15 MK). The views expressed in this paper are the authors’ and do not necessarily represent the views of NIE.