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KB Research Presented at SBM – Part 2

KB Research Presented at SBM – Part 2

Ms. Amanda Brice from Klein Buendel presented a Live Research Spotlight at the 46th Annual Sessions and Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in San Francisco, California, March 26-29, 2025.

*Klein Buendel authors are bolded.

Ms. Amanda Brice

Research Spotlight

Title: Rural Emerging Adults’ Physical Activity Motivation, Intentions, Planning, and Engagement Patterns: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Presenter: Amanda Brice

Authors:  Kayla Nuss, Julia Berteletti, Amanda Brice, Alishia Kinsey, Noah Chirico, and Sierra Held

Emerging adulthood, the period between 18 and 26 years old, is critical for the development of long-term health behaviors, like physical activity engagement. Only 25% of emerging adults meet the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). In rural communities, where residents have less access to behavioral health resources, healthcare, and community services, fewer than 20% of adults meet physical activity recommendations, but data on rural emerging adults is limited. Further, data are lacking in this population on potent drivers of physical activity, such as motivation, intention, and planning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe physical activity engagement, motivation, intention, and planning in a sample of emerging adults from the rural western United States.

Participants were recruited via a nationwide survey panel. Inclusion criteria were: 18 to 26 years old, able to read and understand English, and live in a rural country as defined by the Rural Urban Commuting Area Codes 4-9 in one of the Western states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, or Arizona. We assessed physical activity with the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ), Self-Determination Theory motivation with the Behavioral Regulations in Exercise Questionnaire v.3 (BREQ-3), intention and planning with the Behavioral Intentions Scale, and collected demographic variables.

Means, standard deviations, and percentages were calculated for descriptive and outcome variables. Participants reported minutes of MVPA accumulated through work and recreation, and we calculated total MVPA minutes. Using the Shapiro-Wilk test for normality, we found neither total nor recreational weekly minutes of MVPA were normally distributed. The non-normality was due to a high number of participants reporting zero MVPA minutes. We created binary variables of “Meets Recommendations” (≥ 150 minutes of MVPA per week) vs. “Does Not Meet Recommendations” (≤ 149 minutes of MVPA per week) for both total and recreational MVPA.

The sample included 141 respondents: 115 (81.56%) female and 25 (17.73%) male, aged 22.00±2.63 years. Seventy-five (53.19%) met MVPA recommendations when work was included whereas without, only 32 (22.70%) met recommendations. Participants reported low levels of amotivation, external, introjected, identified, and integrated regulation, and intrinsic motivation. They also reported low levels of intention and planning for physical activity.

More emerging adults met MVPA recommendations when minutes accumulated at work were included. Rural emerging adults have low quality of motivation and low intention and planning for physical activity. Researchers should investigate barriers to physical activity participation in this group as they have high instances of health disparities and low access to health resources.

This research was sponsored by Klein Buendel and led by Dr. Kayla Nuss.

Physical Activity During the Early Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Physical Activity During the Early Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dr. Kayla Nuss, KB Scientist, was part of a multi-institutional research team that published the results of a daily diary physical activity study in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health in July. The study, led by Ms. Kristen Moore from Colorado State University, reported on motivational profile as a predictor of physical activity among U.S. adults during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 468 adults participated in a 28-day smartphone-based daily diary study assessing physical activity. Nearly 80% of the participants were female and the average age of participants was 34.8 years. Daily diaries were used to examine associations between day-level physical activity behavior, physical activity-specific motivational profile, and days since the COVID-19 national emergency declaration during the early months of the pandemic, specifically April-June 2020.

According to the publication in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, a baseline survey assessed physical activity and motivation for physical activity using the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire. Multilevel linear regression models examined the main effects and interactions of motivational profile and time on daily physical activity minutes. Latent profile analysis identified four distinct motivational profiles for physical activity among this sample:

Profiles

  1. High amotivation (21% of participants)
  2. Low controlled motivation (12% of participants)
  3. High external regulation (10% of participants)
  4. Moderate autonomous motivation (57% of participants)

After controlling for baseline physical activity, there were significant interactions between profile and time on daily physical activity. Profile 2 showed greater decreases in daily physical activity minutes over time than profile 1. Profiles 3 and 4 did not indicate significant decreases in physical activity compared with profile 1. Details on the methods and results of this research can be found in the publication.

The authors summarize that Individuals with lower controlled or moderate autonomous motivation demonstrated the largest decreases in physical activity over time, whereas individuals with higher amotivation or external regulation demonstrated smaller decreases over time. In conclusion, the authors suggest that external motivation may have provided short-term protection against declines in physical activity observed during early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research was supported by the Assessment and Promotion of Physical Activity and Health Lab at Colorado State University and the Real-Time Eating Activity and Children’s Health Lab at University of Southern California. Authors in addition to Ms. Moore and Dr. Nuss include Dr. Shirlene Wang and Dr. Genevieve Dunton from the University of Southern California; Dr. Kaigang Li and Dr. Dan Graham from Colorado State University; Dr. Jimikaye Courtney from the University of North Carolina, and Dr. Bridgette Do from FitMinded, Inc.