University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy.
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy.
Appl Psychol Health Well Being. 2021 Feb;13(1):152-173. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12224. Epub 2020 Sep 17.
This study aimed to test the efficacy of a messaging intervention targeting psychological or physical benefits plus goal setting and self-monitoring strategies to promote walking activity in the university context.
Two hundred and thirty university students from the University of Naples Federico II were randomly allocated to one of four conditions: physical health messages + self-monitoring, psychological health (well-being) messages + self-monitoring, self-monitoring, and no messages. All three intervention conditions were exposed to goal setting (doing at least 7,000 steps a day) and participants were required to monitor their daily progress through the specific step counting app. Participants' walking activity and related psychological variables were assessed at T1 and T2. We ran ANCOVAs and mediation analysis to test our research questions and hypotheses. Analyses were based on the N = 156 who completed all measures at both time points.
Participants in the three experimental (message) conditions reported improvement in psychological variables and behaviour. In particular, the messages focused on the physical health benefits, combined with self-monitoring, were the most effective.
Our study provides new information on the factors that could be usefully targeted to promote walking activity (i.e. intention, past behaviour, action control, and persuasive messages on the physical benefits of walking).
本研究旨在测试一项针对心理或身体益处加目标设定和自我监测策略的信息干预措施在大学环境中促进步行活动的效果。
来自那不勒斯费德里克二世大学的 230 名大学生被随机分配到四个条件之一：身体健康信息+自我监测、心理健康（幸福感）信息+自我监测、自我监测和无信息。所有三个干预条件都接受了目标设定（每天至少走 7000 步），参与者需要通过特定的计步应用程序监测他们的日常进展。在 T1 和 T2 评估参与者的步行活动和相关心理变量。我们进行了协方差分析和中介分析来检验我们的研究问题和假设。分析基于在两个时间点都完成所有测量的 N=156 名参与者。
三个实验（信息）条件的参与者报告了心理变量和行为的改善。特别是，关注身体健康益处并结合自我监测的信息最为有效。
我们的研究提供了关于可用于促进步行活动的因素的新信息（即意图、过去行为、行动控制和关于步行身体益处的有说服力的信息）。
