Associations between trait mindfulness and physical activity: the parallel mediating effect of exercise positive well-being and exercise psychological distress.

OBJECTIVE

An increasing body of evidence suggests that exercise positive affect contribute to sustained engagement in physical activity, yet few studies have proposed intervention strategies targeting exercise affect. Currently, mindfulness is considered to have the potential to promote the improvement of exercise affect and physical activity. This study combines cross-sectional design and longitudinal design to explore the relationship between trait mindfulness and physical activity, and examines whether exercise positive well-being and exercise psychological distress mediate this relationship.

METHODS

At first, this study adopted a large sample cross-sectional design, and assessed the participants' trait mindfulness, exercise positive well-being, exercise psychological distress and physical activity through online self-report survey (n = 853, male = 54.7%; M = 19.16, SD = 0.97). Subsequently, a subset of participants from the cross-sectional study (n = 354, male = 52.8%; M = 19.21, SD = 0.86) were followed up for three months by longitudinal follow-up design, and the time relationships between these variables was examined.

RESULTS

In the cross-sectional survey, the results of the correlation analysis showed that trait mindfulness, exercise positive well-being, and physical activity were all significantly positively correlated, while psychological distress was negatively correlated with the other variables. Similar correlations were observed during longitudinal follow-up. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal mediation analyses indicated that exercise positive well-being and exercise psychological distress served as parallel mediators in the relationship between trait mindfulness and physical activity.

CONCLUSION

Exercise positive well-being and exercise psychological distress may serve as potential mechanisms through which trait mindfulness influences physical activity. This provides a theoretical basis and practical direction for future development of mindfulness-based interventions to promote physical activity.