Clinical trial NCT02615821: Mental Contrasting Physical Activity Study
Official title: Mental Contrasting Physical Activity Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Exercise
Attitude to Health
Motivation
Goals
Lead sponsor: University of British Columbia
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2015-11-26
Enrollment: 105
Sex: FEMALE
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL

Brief summary: Given the numerous physical and psychological benefits of engaging in regular physical activity (Biddle \& Ekkekakis, 2005; Warburton et al., 2007) and the decrease in students' physical activity levels during the transition from high school to university (Bray \& Born, 2010) it is important for researchers to develop time-and-cost-effective interventions to prevent this drop in physical activity. Intervention research shows mental contrasting (a goal setting strategy) can be taught in a cost-and-time-effective way in order to increase physical activity (Oettingen, 2012). Researchers have also found that individuals who consider the emotional effects of physical activity are more likely to be physically active than those who consider the health-related effects (Rhodes et al., 2009). The purpose of this research is to combine these two approaches to develop and evaluate a novel mental contrasting intervention to increase physical activity among a sample of undergraduate students.

Detailed description: The transition from high school to university is a vulnerable period for discontinuing regular physical activity, which can have implications for individuals' physical and psychological health (Bray \& Born, 2010). Accordingly, it is imperative to find and implement cost and time-effective interventions to mitigate the consequences of this transition. Mental contrasting is a goal-setting strategy that involves imagining the greatest outcome associated with achievement of a desired future goal while considering the aspects of one's present situation that may serve as obstacles for attaining that same goal (Oettingen \& Gollwitzer, 2010). Intervention research has shown that mental contrasting can be taught as a metacognitive strategy in a cost- and time-effective way, affecting numerous health behaviours including physical activity (Oettingen, 2012). Drawing from diverse theoretical perspectives (e.g., Bechara, 2005; Lawton, Conner, \& McEachan, 2009; Williams, 2010), recent meta-analytic evidence suggests that affective judgements (e.g., enjoyable-unenjoyable) exert greater influence on physical activity behaviors than health-related instrumental judgements (e.g., useful-useless; Rhodes, Fiala, \& Conner, 2009). Nevertheless, research has yet to utilize mental contrasting as a means of targeting affective judgements, through intervention, in order to bolster physical activity promotion efforts. This research will examine how an affective mental contrasting intervention will change university students' affective judgements in comparison to instrumental mental contrasting and standard mental contrasting comparison conditions, and the subsequent impact of these changes on physical activity behaviour.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Individuals will be eligible to participate if they are female, inactive (i.e., engage in moderate-vigorous intensity physical activity for more than 30 minutes, less than three times a week), studying for an undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, and are able to read and converse in English.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Participants will be excluded if they have any self-reported physical health conditions using the online version of the PAR-Q+ (http://eparmedx.com/?page_id=75) that would restrict them from increasing their physical activity behaviours at the time of the intervention.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change is accelerometry measured moderate-vigorous physical activity from baseline
timeFrame: One week immediately following the intervention
measure: Change is accelerometry measured moderate-vigorous physical activity from baseline
timeFrame: Four-week follow-up
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in Godin's Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ)
timeFrame: Change between baseline and four-week follow-up
measure: Change is Affective and Instrumental Physical Activity Judgements
timeFrame: Changes between baseline, the week immediately following the intervention, and a four-week follow-up.
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Vancouver
country: Canada
facility: Psychology of Exercise, Health, and Physical Activity Laboratory, University of British Columbia
state: British Columbia
Study officials:
affiliation: University of British Columbia
name: Mark Beauchamp
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Ruissen GR, Rhodes RE, Crocker PRE, Beauchamp MR. Affective mental contrasting to enhance physical activity: A randomized controlled trial. Health Psychol. 2018 Jan;37(1):51-60. doi: 10.1037/hea0000551. Epub 2017 Oct 5.