Antecedents and mediators of the association between adolescents’ intention and physical activity: a cross-sectional study in seven European countries

ABSTRACT

About 80% of adolescents report insufficient physical activity (PA) worldwide. Beyond the association of attitudes, family and friends’ support, and perceived behavioural control (PBC) with intention, self-regulation strategies are expected to underlie the association between intention and action. Particularly, action planning and self-monitoring, as well as the perceived energy needed to develop these strategies, may explain the relationship between intention and PA. However, existing evidence remains scarce and contrasted among adolescents. In a large sample of 13,136 adolescents from seven European countries, we examined the antecedents of intention. We further investigated whether action planning and self-monitoring mediated the association of intention with self-reported PA, as well as whether perceived energy predicted PA through these self-regulation strategies. Structural equation modeling showed that attitudes, PBC, family and friends’ support were all associated with intention (b > 0.08, p < .001). Intention (direct effect, b = 0.23, p < .001) and PBC were associated with PA (b = 0.22, p < .001). Action planning (indirect effect, b = 0.06, p < .001) and self-monitoring (indirect effect, b = 0.10, p < .001) partly mediated the relationship of intention with PA. Perceived energy was associated with PA through the partial mediating effect of action planning (indirect effect, b = 0.05, p < .001) and self-monitoring (indirect effect, b = 0.11, p < .001). Our results suggest that both action planning and self-monitoring underlie the association between intention and PA among European adolescents and that perceived energy could be an antecedent of these self-regulation strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical activity
• intention
• self-regulation
• action planning
• self-monitoring

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In this article, we will refer to action planning and this term will be considered as equivalent to implementation intention. These two terms have often been used interchangeably in previous research, thought their conceptual distinction was previously established (Hagger & Luszczynska, 2014).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union, Erasmus+ sport programme, Grant Agreement n° 579784-EPP-1-2016-2-EL-SPO-SCP. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union.