Exploring daily affect, affect regulation and goal pursuit in a physical activity intervention: Effects of a cognitive and cognitive-affective physical activity intervention

This study explored the role of cognitive and cognitive-affective planning in daily physical activity and examined daily affect and affect regulation in association with daily goal pursuit for physical activity. We analyzed a randomized-controlled one-week intervention study with three groups: cognitive planning ( N = 37), cognitive-affective planning ( N = 35), and waitlist-control group ( N = 39). The planning week was accompanied by daily check-ins where participants reported on their daily affect, goal pursuit, and affect regulation strategies. We found no group differences in intervention efficacy on physical activity, positive and negative affect, after one week. Our analysis of the daily diary data revealed that goal enactment was a strong predictor for positive and negative daily affect, regardless of the intervention group. Exploratory multilevel analyses showed that on days when a physical activity goal was enacted, distraction from positive experiences was related to more negative affect, empathetic suppression was related to less positive affect, and uncontrolled expression and savoring were linked to more positive affect. Analyses for goal failure days showed no significant relations. Even though we did not detect any group differences for the physical activity intervention, exploratory results showed that daily affect is closely intertwined with successful goal enactment and affect regulation. These results suggest that supporting individuals in cultivating positive affective experiences regarding physical activity may be a promising pathway to integrate in future interventions, considering dynamic temporal processes on daily and long-term behavior change.