Do anxiety sensitivity and impulsivity interact in predicting exercise involvement in emerging adult drinkers and cannabis users?

ABSTRACT

Anxiety sensitivity (AS; i.e. fear of arousal-related sensations) and impulsivity (i.e. tendency to act quickly without regard for longer-term consequences) represent risks for low physical activity participation. Theoretically, higher impulsivity may exacerbate the negative exercise behaviours of high AS individuals given the tendency of impulsive individuals to favour immediate (e.g. watching TV) over delayed rewards (e.g. the benefits of exercise). Our goal was to investigate the main and interactive effects of AS and impulsivity on physical activity levels at varying exercise intensities. Participants were 178 emerging adults (Mean age = 21.9; 68.8% women). Higher AS was associated with less engagement in vigorous intensity exercise. Moderator analyses revealed an AS x impulsivity interaction: high AS predicted significantly less engagement in moderate intensity exercise at low impulsivity levels and marginally more engagement in moderate intensity exercise at high impulsivity levels. Finally, higher impulsivity was associated with more time spent walking. Cognitive behavioural therapy for high AS, or teaching individuals with high AS to focus on immediate, external rewards of exercise, may help them engage in more physical activity. Given the wide-ranging physical and mental health benefits of exercise involvement, developing effective strategies to increase such involvement in high AS individuals is vital.

KEYWORDS:

• anxiety sensitivity
• impulsivity
• physical activity
• exercise
• substance use

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Emerging adults were chosen based on evidence that impulsivity is associated with immaturity of the prefrontal cortex (Crews & Boettiger, 2009) and that this population is generally higher in impulsivity (Giedd, 2008). The substance use eligibility criteria were required as the current study was part of a larger, longitudinal study on alcohol and cannabis use in emerging adults (e.g. Bartel et al., 2020). Nonetheless, this population was a good candidate for the present study as outlined in the introduction.

2. Lower mean impulsivity scores may be attributable to the greater proportion of women present in our sample (~69%) compared to the normative sample (~55%; Woicik et al., 2009) given impulsivity is higher in men than women (Nolen-Hoeksema & Hilt, 2006).

3. Indeed, in the present sample, the men (n = 55) had a significantly higher mean impulsivity score than the women (n = 121) (t (174) = 1.68, p = .047; M (SD) = 10.42 (3.05) vs. 9.68 (2.53), respectively).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Dalhousie University Department of Psychiatry Research Fund.