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Variety support and exercise adherence behavior: experimental and mediating effects

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which the provision of variety (i.e., variety support) is related to exercise behavior among physically inactive adults and the extent to which the ‘experience of variety’ mediates those effects. One hundred and twenty one inactive university students were randomly assigned to follow a high or low variety support exercise program for 6 weeks. Assessments were conducted at baseline, 3- and 6-weeks. Participants in the high variety support condition displayed higher levels of adherence to the exercise program than those in the low variety support condition [F(1, 116) = 5.55, p = .02, η 2p  = .05] and the relationship between variety support and adherence was mediated by perceived variety (β = .16, p < .01). Exercise-related variety support holds potential to be an efficacious method for facilitating greater exercise adherence behaviors of previously inactive people by fostering perceptions of variety.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a graduate scholarship awarded to Ben Sylvester by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as a career investigator award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research awarded to Mark Beauchamp.

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Correspondence to Benjamin D. Sylvester.

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Benjamin D. Sylvester, Martyn Standage, Desmond McEwan, Svenja A. Wolf, David R. Lubans, Narelle Eather, Megan Kaulius, Geralyn R. Ruissen, Peter R. E. Crocker, Bruno D. Zumbo, Mark R. Beauchamp declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.

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Sylvester, B.D., Standage, M., McEwan, D. et al. Variety support and exercise adherence behavior: experimental and mediating effects. J Behav Med 39, 214–224 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-015-9688-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-015-9688-4

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