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UNSTRUCTURED Living in urban environments affects individuals’ mental health through different pathways. For instance, physical activity and social participation are seen as mediators. However, aiming to understand underlying mechanisms, it is necessary to consider that the individual is interacting with its environment. In this regard, this viewpoint discusses how urban health research benefits from integration of socioecological and interdisciplinary perspectives, combined with innovative ambulatory data assessments that enable researchers to integrate different data sources. It is stated that neither focusing on the objective and accurate assessment of the environment (from the perspective of spatial sciences) nor focusing on subjectively measured individual variables (from the public health as well as a psychosocial perspective) alone is suitable to further develop the field. Addressing person-place interactions requires an interdisciplinary view on the level of theory (eg, which variables should be focused on?), assessment methods (eg, combination of time-varying objective and subjective measures), as well as data analysis and interpretation. Firstly, this viewpoint gives an overview on previous findings addressing the relationship of environmental characteristics to physical activity and mental health outcomes. We emphasize the need for approaches that allow us to appropriately assess the real-time interaction between a person and a specific environment and examine within-subject associations. This requires the assessment of environmental features, the spatial-temporal behavior of the individual, and the subjective experiences of the situation together with other individual factors, such as momentary affective states. Therefore, we finally focused on triggered study designs as an innovative ambulatory data assessment approach that allows us to capture real-time data in predefined situations (eg, while walking through a specific urban area).

BACKGROUND Walking behavior is positively associated with physiological and mental health as much evidence has already shown. Walking is also becoming a critical issue for health promotion in urban environments as it is the most often used form of active mobility and helps to replace carbon dioxide emissions from motorized forms of transport. It therefore contributes to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and heat islands within cities. However, to promote walking of urban dwellers and to utilize its health enhancing potential, we need to know more about the way in which physical and social environments shape individual experiences during walking episodes. Such person-place interactions could not adequately be analyzed in former studies due to methodological constraints. OBJECTIVE This paper introduces walking triggered e-diaries as an innovative ambulatory assessment approach for time-varying associations and investigates its accuracy with two different validation strategies. METHODS The walking-trigger consists of a combination of movement-acceleration via accelerometer and mobile positioning of the cell phone via GPS and transmission towers to track walking activities. The trigger starts an e-diary whenever a movement acceleration exceeds a predetermined threshold and participant's locations are identified as non-stationary outside a predefined place of residence. Every 420 sec (+- 300 sec) repeated e-diaries were prompted as long as the trigger conditions were met. Data were assessed on 10 consecutive days. Firstly, to investigate accuracy, we reconstructed walking routes and calculated a percentage score for all triggered prompts in relation to all walking routes where a prompt could have been triggered. Then to provide data about its specificity, we used momentary self-reports and objectively assessed movement behavior to describe activity levels before the trigger prompted an e-diary. RESULTS Data of 67 participants could be analyzed and the walking-trigger led to 3283 e-diary prompts from which 2258 (68.8%) were answered. Concerning accuracy, the walking-trigger prompted an e-diary on 732 of 842 reconstructed walking routes (86.9%). Further, in 69.5% of the triggered e-diaries, participants self-reported that they were currently walking outside. Steps and acceleration movement was higher during these self-reported walking episodes compared to the ones participants denied being currently walking outside (steps: 106 vs. 32; g > .2 in 58.4% vs. 19%). CONCLUSIONS The accuracy analysis revealed that walking-triggered e-diaries are suitable to collect different data of individuals' current experiences in the very situations in which a person walks outside. Combined with environmental data, such an approach increases knowledge about person-place interactions and provides the possibility to gain knowledge about user preferences for health enhancing urban environments. From a methodological point of view, however, specificity analysis showed how changes in trigger conditions (e.g. increasing threshold for movement acceleration) leads to changes in accuracy.

Background The bi-directional associations between affective states and movement behaviors (e.g., physical activity, sedentary behavior) have been observed in children. It is unclear if the strength of these bi-directional associations varies with age as children transition from childhood to adolescence. Purpose This multi-wave ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study investigates the acute time-varying associations between affect and movement behaviors among youth. Methods Children (N = 195, baseline mean age = 10.72, range = 8–12 years, mean BMI-z = 0.49, 51% female) participated in a six-wave EMA study across three years. Each EMA survey captured momentary positive and negative affect. Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time in the 15-min window before and after each EMA survey was calculated using accelerometry data. Time-varying effect models (TVEM) examined the acute bi-directional associations between momentary positive/negative affect and MVPA/sedentary time across ages 8 to 14. Results Children provided 14,246 valid activity-matched EMA surveys across all waves. TVEM plots revealed that the directionality and the strength (time-varying slopes) of associations between momentary affect and activity levels vary across ages. Positive affect was associated with higher MVPA levels and lower sedentary time at younger ages, whereas negative affect linked to lower MVPA levels and more sedentary time at older ages. Conclusions The acute associations between momentary affect and (in)activity levels may vary as a function of children's age. Applying TVEM to intensive longitudinal data could provide valuable information for developing age-tailored interventions that promote healthy lifestyles among children and adolescents.

Background Research has shown that affect is associated with everyday movement behaviors in children and adults. However, limited work to date has investigated dyadic influences of momentary affect on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time among children and their mothers using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Methods Mothers and their children (eight to 12-years-old at baseline) from the Los Angeles metropolitan area participated in a longitudinal study with six semi-annual measurement waves across three years. During each measurement wave, mothers and children reported momentary negative and positive affect via a custom smartphone-based EMA application across seven days (randomly sampled up to eight times per day). Each dyad member’s momentary affective states were used to predict their own and the other dyad member’s accelerometer-measured MVPA and sedentary time in the prompt-matched 45-min time window. Multilevel modeling within the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) framework was applied to accommodate the nested dyadic nature of the data. Results At the within-subject level, when children had higher-than-usual positive affect, they engaged in greater MVPA and less sedentary time in the prompt-matched 45-min window (actor effects; ps p p ps Conclusions This study extends the literature by demonstrating that mothers’ and children’s everyday physical activity and sedentary time are not only associated with their own affective states, but also may be influenced by the affective states of each other. Our findings suggest that affective states have the potential to influence movement behaviors in mother-child dyads’ everyday lives. Affective underpinnings of physical activity and sedentary behaviors should be further studied in order to develop family-based intervention strategies to influence these behaviors.

Psychology of sport and exercise 50 (2020) 101742, 49 S., Technological and digital progress benefits physical activity (PA) research. Here we compiled expert knowledge on how Ambulatory Assessment (AA) is utilized to advance PA research, i.e., we present results of the 2nd International CAPA Workshop 2019 "Physical Activity Assessment - State of the Science, Best Practices, Future Directions" where invited researchers with experience in PA assessment, evaluation, technology and application participated. First, we provide readers with the state of the AA science, then we give best practice recommendations on how to measure PA via AA and shed light on methodological frontiers, and we furthermore discuss future directions. AA encompasses a class of methods that allows the study of PA and its behavioral, biological and physiological correlates as they unfold in everyday life. AA includes monitoring of movement (e.g., via accelerometry), physiological function (e.g., via mobile electrocardiogram), contextual information (e.g., via geolocation-tracking), and ecological momentary assessment (EMA; e.g., electronic diaries) to capture self-reported information. The strengths of AA are data assessment that near real-time, which minimizes retrospective biases in real-world settings, consequentially enabling ecological valid findings. Importantly, AA enables multiple assessments across time within subjects resulting in intensive longitudinal data (ILD), which allows unraveling within-person determinants of PA in everyday life. In this paper, we show how AA methods such as triggered e-diaries and geolocation-tracking can be used to measure PA and its correlates, and furthermore how these findings may translate into real-life interventions. In sum, AA provides numerous possibilities for PA research, especially the opportunity to tackle within-subject antecedents, concomitants, and consequences of PA as they unfold in everyday life. In-depth insights on determinants of PA could help us design and deliver impactful interventions in real-world contexts, thus enabling us to solve critical health issues in the 21st century such as insufficient PA and high levels of sedentary behavior. (DIPF/Orig.)

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Background Sedentary behaviors (SB) and especially prolonged sitting bouts are highly prevalent in daily life and studies indicated an association with an increased risk for several non-communicable diseases. Consequently, guidelines to reduce SB were developed. At the same time, an in-depth knowledge regarding SB such as where, what and with whom people spend time sedentary as well as correlates such as affective states of prolonged sitting bouts, is still lacking. A more differentiated view on SB is necessary to identify detrimental and modifiable sedentary bouts. We addressed this gap by conducting an ambulatory assessment study including accelerometer and sedentary-triggered e-diaries that captures data during prolonged sitting bouts (> 20 min). We investigated how contextual factors of prolonged sitting bouts are associated with momentary affective states. Method Four studies were combined with a final sample of 308 participants (50.3% female, Mage, 27.4, range, 17–66). SB was assessed objectively with thigh-worn accelerometers for four to five days. Whenever a participant was sitting for 20 or 30 min the accelerometer triggered questions assessing social (not alone vs. alone) and environmental (leisure vs. working) factors as well as momentary affective states (valence, energetic arousal and calmness). Multilevel analyses were used to examine within-person associations between different contexts and mood during prolonged sitting. Results Momentary affective states varied significantly due to different social and environmental contexts (ps Conclusion Findings showed that prolonged sitting bouts differ regarding their association with affect. Sitting with others, sitting during leisure time and especially sitting during leisure time and with others, was associated with higher levels of momentary affective states, respectively. Thus, SB guidelines should focus on reducing those SB episodes that are associated with lower levels of affect, for example during working episodes.

Das Kapitel tragt Erkenntnisse zusammen, die das vermeintliche Allgemeinwissen relativieren, dass Sporttreiben der Gesundheit schon allein deshalb zutraglich sei, weil man sich durch Sport besser fuhle: Richtig ist, dass sich die meisten Menschen bei niedrig-intensiver Bewegungsaktivitat wohl fuhlen. Jedoch fuhlen sich viele Menschen schon bei moderat-intensiver korperlicher Beanspruchung, wie sie fur Sport oft kennzeichnend ist, nicht mehr wohl und vermeiden sie deshalb. Psychologisches Wissen hilft, wirksame Interventionen fur mehr Bewegung und Sport im Alltag zu entwickeln.

BACKGROUND Sedentary behavior has received much attention in the scientific community over the past decade. There is growing evidence that sedentary behavior is negatively associated with physical and mental health. However, an in-depth understanding of the social and environmental context of sedentary behavior is missing. Information about sedentary behavior, such as how everyday sedentary behavior occurs throughout the day (eg, number and length of sedentary bouts), where, when, and with whom it takes place, and what people are doing while being sedentary, is useful to inform the development of interventions aimed at reducing sedentary time. However, examining everyday sedentary behavior requires specific methods. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper is (1) to introduce sedentary behavior–triggered Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) as a methodological advancement in the field of sedentary behavior research and (2) to examine the accuracy of sedentary behavior–triggered EMA in 3 different studies in healthy adults. Moreover, we compare the accuracy of sedentary behavior–triggered EMA to simulations of random-trigger designs. METHODS Sedentary behavior–triggered EMA comprises a continuous assessment of sedentary behavior via accelerometers and repeated contextual assessments via electronic diaries (ie, an application on a smartphone). More specifically, the accelerometer analyzes and transfers data regarding body position (a sitting or lying position, or an upright position) via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to a smartphone in real time and triggers the deployment of questionnaires. Each time a participant spends a specified time (eg, 20 minutes) in a sedentary position, the e-diary triggers contextual assessments. To test the accuracy of this method, we calculated a percentage score for all triggered prompts in relation to the total number of bouts that could trigger a prompt. RESULTS Based on the accelerometer recordings, 29.3% (5062/17278) of all sedentary bouts were classified as moderate-to-long (20-40 minutes) and long bouts (≥ 41 minutes). On average, the accuracy by participant was 82.77% (3339/4034; SD 21.01%, range 71.00-88.22%) on the study level. Compared to simulations of random prompts (every 120 minutes), the number of triggered prompts was up to 47.9% (n=704) higher through the sedentary behavior–triggered EMA approach. Nearly 40% (799/2001) of all prolonged sedentary bouts (≥ 20 minutes) occurred during work, and in 57% (1140/2001) of all bouts, the participants were not alone. CONCLUSIONS Sedentary behavior–triggered EMA is an accurate method for collecting contextual information on sedentary behavior in daily life. Given the growing interest in sedentary behavior research, this sophisticated approach offers a real advancement as it can be used to collect social and environmental contextual information or to unravel dynamic associations. Furthermore, it can be modified to develop sedentary behavior–triggered mHealth interventions.

Despite the large number of studies and reviews available, the evidence regarding the biological determinants of physical activity (PA) is inconclusive. In this umbrella review, we summarized the current evidence on the biological determinants of PA across the life course, by pooling the results of the available systematic literature reviews (SLRs) and meta-analyses (MAs).We conducted an online search on MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus databases up to January 2018. SLRs and MAs of observational studies that investigated the association between biological determinants of PA and having PA as outcome were considered eligible. The extracted data were assessed based on the importance of the determinants, the strength of evidence, and the methodological quality.We identified 19 reviews of which most were of moderate methodological quality. Determinants that were studied most frequently among all ages and demonstrated evidence suggesting a positive association to PA were younger age, being male, higher health status, and higher physical fitness levels. Among adults, normal birth weight was found to be positively associated to PA with convincing strength of evidence, while findings among adolescents were inconsistent and with limited strength of evidence.Different social or behavioral factors may contribute to the decrease of PA with age and among females versus males, and creating programmes targeted at diverse ages, female population, and adults with abnormal birth weight is recommended. Future studies should use prospective study designs, standardized definitions of PA, and objective measurement methods of PA assessment.

Health research often aims to prevent noncommunicable diseases and to improve individual and public health by discovering intervention strategies that are effective in changing behavior and/or environments that are detrimental to one’s health. Ideally, findings from original research support practitioners in planning and implementing effective interventions. Unfortunately, interventions often fail to overcome the translational block between science and practice. They often ignore theoretical knowledge, overlook empirical evidence, and underrate the impact of the environment. Accordingly, sustainable changes in individual behavior and/or the environment are difficult to achieve. Developing theory-driven and evidence-based interventions in the real world is a complex task. Existing implementation frameworks and theories often do not meet the needs of health practitioners. The purpose of this article is to synthesize existing frameworks and to provide a tool, the Matrix Assisting Practitioner’s Intervention Planning Tool (MAP-IT), that links research to practice and helps practitioners to design multicomponent interventions. In this article, we use physical activity of older adults as an example to explain the rationale of MAP-IT. In MAP-IT, individual as well as environmental mechanisms are listed and behavior change techniques are linked to these mechanisms and to intervention components. MAP-IT is theory-driven and evidence-based. It is time-saving and helpful for practitioners when planning complex interventions.

Background Despite the large number of studies and reviews available, the evidence regarding the biological determinants of physical activity (PA) is inconclusive. In this umbrella review, we summarized the current evidence on the biological determinants of PA across the life course, by pooling the results of the available systematic literature reviews (SLRs) and meta-analyses (MAs). Methods We conducted an online search on MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus databases up to January 2018. SLRs and MAs of observational studies that investigated the association between biological determinants of PA and having PA as outcome were considered eligible. The extracted data were assessed based on the importance of the determinants, the strength of evidence, and the methodological quality. Results We identified 19 reviews of which most were of moderate methodological quality. Determinants that were studied most frequently among all ages and demonstrated evidence suggesting a positive association to PA were younger age, being male, higher health status, and higher physical fitness levels. Among adults, normal birth weight was found to be positively associated to PA with convincing strength of evidence, while findings among adolescents were inconsistent and with limited strength of evidence. Conclusions Different social or behavioral factors may contribute to the decrease of PA with age and among females versus males, and creating programmes targeted at diverse ages, female population, and adults with abnormal birth weight is recommended. Future studies should use prospective study designs, standardized definitions of PA, and objective measurement methods of PA assessment.

Background\ud To date, the scientific literature on socioeconomic correlates and determinants of physical activity behaviours has been dispersed throughout a number of systematic reviews, often focusing on one factor (e.g. education or parental income) in one specific age group (e.g. pre-school children or adults). The aim of this umbrella review is to provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of the scientific literature from previously conducted research by summarising and synthesising the importance and strength of the evidence related to socioeconomic correlates and determinants of PA behaviours across the life course.\ud \ud Methods\ud Medline, Embase, ISI Web of Science, Scopus and SPORTDiscus were searched for systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies investigating the association between socioeconomic determinants of PA and PA itself (from January 2004 to September 2017). Data extraction evaluated the importance of determinants, strength of evidence, and methodological quality of the selected papers. The full protocol is available from PROSPERO (PROSPERO2014:CRD42015010616).\ud \ud Results\ud Nineteen reviews were included. Moderate methodological quality emerged. For adults, convincing evidence supports a relationship between PA and socioeconomic status (SES), especially in relation to leisure time (positive relationship) and occupational PA (negative relationship). Conversely, no association between PA and SES or parental SES was found for pre-school, school-aged children and adolescents.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud Available evidence on the socioeconomic determinants of PA behaviour across the life course is probable (shows fairly consistent associations) at best. While some evidence is available for adults, less was available for youth. This is mainly due to a limited quantity of primary studies, weak research designs and lack of accuracy in the PA and SES assessment methods employed. Further PA domain specific studies using longitudinal design and clear measures of SES and PA assessment are required.

Background\ud Despite the large number of studies and reviews available, the evidence regarding the policy determinants of physical activity (PA) is inconclusive. This umbrella systematic literature review (SLR) summarizes the current evidence on the policy determinants of PA across the life course, by pooling the results of the available SLRs and meta-analyses (MAs).\ud \ud Methods\ud A systematic online search was conducted on MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Scopus and SPORTDiscus databases up to April 2016. SLRs and MAs of observational studies investigating the association between policy determinants of PA and having PA as outcome were considered eligible. The extracted data were assessed based on the importance of the determinants, the strength of evidence and the methodological quality.\ud \ud Results\ud Fourteen reviews on 27 policy determinants of PA were eligible for this umbrella SLR. The majority of the reviews were of moderate quality. Among children, a clear association between time spent outdoors and PA emerged. Among adults, working hours were negatively associated with PA, though evidence was limited. At the population level, community- and street-scale urban design and land use policies were found to positively support PA levels, but levels of evidences were low.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud With this umbrella SLR the policy determinants of PA at individual-level and population-level have been summarized and assessed. None of the investigated policy determinants had a convincing level of evidence, and very few had a probable level of evidence. Further research is needed, preferably by using prospective study designs, standardized definitions of PA and objective measurement of PA.

International audience; Low levels of physical activity (PA) are reported to contribute to the occurrence of non-communicable diseases over the life course. Although psychological factors have been identified as an important category concerning PA behavior, knowledge on psychological determinants of PA is still inconclusive. Therefore, the aim of this umbrella systematic literature review (SLR) was to summarize and synthesize the scientific evidence on psychological determinants of PA behavior across the life course. A systematic online search was conducted on MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus databases. The search was limited to studies published in English from January 2004 to April 2016. SLRs and meta-analyses (MAs) of observational studies investigating the association of psychological variables and PA were considered eligible. Extracted data were evaluated based on importance of determinants, strength of evidence, and methodological quality. The full protocol is available from PROSPERO (Record ID: CRD42015010616). Twenty reviews (14 SLRs and 6 MAs), mostly of moderate methodological quality, were found eligible. Convincing evidence was found for self-efficacy (positive association with PA) in children and adolescents, and stress (negative association with PA) regardless of age. Most of the evidence revealing an association between psychological determinants and PA is probable and limited, mainly due to differences in the definition of PA and of psychological determinants across reviews. Thus, scholars are urged to reach a consensus on clear definitions of relevant psychological determinants of PA, subsuming cultural biases and allowing the possibility to obtain clear interpretations and generalizability of findings. Finally, most psychological determinants should be considered within a larger framework of other multi-level determinants that may interact or mediate some of the effects.

BackgroundParticipation in regular physical activity is associated with a multitude of health benefits across the life course. However, many people fail to meet PA recommendations. Despite a plethora of studies, the evidence regarding the environmental (physical) determinants of physical activity remains inconclusive.ObjectiveTo identify the physical environmental determinants that influence PA across the life course.MethodsAn online systematic literature search was conducted using MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Scopus and SPORTDiscus. The search was limited to studies published in English (January 2004 to April 2016). Only systematic literature reviews (SLRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) of observational studies, that investigated the association between physical determinants and physical activity outcomes, were eligible for inclusion. The extracted data were assessed on the importance of determinants, strength of evidence and methodological quality.ResultsThe literature search identified 28 SLRs and 3 MAs on 67 physical environmental characteristics potentially related to physical activity that were eligible for inclusion. Among preschool children, a positive association was reported between availability of backyard space and outdoor toys/equipment in the home and overall physical activity. The availability of physical activity programs and equipment within schools, and neighbourhood features such as pedestrian and cyclist safety structure were positively associated with physical activity in children and adolescents. Negative street characteristics, for example, lack of sidewalks and streetlights, were negatively associated with physical activity in adults. Inconsistent associations were reported for the majority of reviewed determinants in adults.ConclusionThis umbrella SLR provided a comprehensive overview of the physical environment determinants of physical activity across the life course and has highlighted, particularly amongst youth, a number of key determinants that may be associated with overall physical activity. Given the limited evidence drawn mostly from cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies are needed to further explore these associations. published

Background\ud \ud Low levels of physical activity (PA) are a global concern and increasing PA engagement is becoming a priority in current public health policies. Despite the large number of studies and reviews available, the evidence regarding the behavioral determinants of PA is still inconclusive. Thus, the aim of this umbrella systematic literature review (SLR) was to summarize the evidence on the behavioral determinants of PA across the life course.\ud Methods\ud \ud A systematic online search was conducted on MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus databases. The search was limited to studies published in English from January, 2004 to April, 2016. SLRs and meta-analyses (MAs) of observational studies that investigated the behavioral determinants of PA were considered eligible. The extracted data were assessed based on the importance of the determinants, the strength of evidence, and the methodological quality. The full protocol is available from PROSPERO (PROSPERO 2014:CRD42015010616).\ud Results\ud \ud Seventeen reviews on 35 behavioral determinants of PA were eligible for this umbrella SLR. Regardless of age, the most investigated determinants were those related with ‘screen use’ and ‘smoking’. For youth, probable positive evidence emerged for ‘previous PA’ and ‘independent mobility and active transport’ among children and adolescents. For the adult population, ‘transition to university’ and ‘pregnancy/having a child’ showed probable negative associations.\ud Conclusions\ud \ud Although the majority of the evidence was limited and most of the determinants were not associated with PA, this umbrella SLR provided a comprehensive overview of the associations between behavioral determinants and PA. Youth should be physically active in the early years and increase active transportation to/from school, independent mobility, and ‘free-range activities’ without adult supervision, whilst adult PA behaviors are mostly influenced by the life events. Finally, more research is needed that incorporates prospective study designs, standardized definitions of PA, objective measurement methods of PA assessment, and the use of interactionist and mediational approaches for the evaluation of different behavioral determinants influencing PA behaviors.

BackgroundSubstantial evidence shows that physical activities of daily living are positively correlated with affective states in middle-aged and older adults. However, people’s physical activity decreases when they grow older, and conditions that enhance older individuals’ physical activities of daily living are not well understood.PurposeThis study investigated need satisfaction (competence, relatedness, and autonomy) and its moderating effect on the within-subject relation between physical activities of daily living and three dimensions of affective states (valence, energetic arousal, and calmness) based on an ambulatory assessment that used activity-triggered e-diaries.MethodThe physical activities of daily living of 68 adults aged 50+ (mean age = 60.1 ± 7.1) were measured objectively for three consecutive days, and need satisfaction and affective states were assessed as a function of the amount of physical activity during the preceding 10 min before the affect measurement (in activity-triggered e-diaries). Hierarchical multilevel analyses were performed.ResultsNeed satisfaction was significantly and positively correlated with the three dimensions of affective states. Further, physical activities of daily living were significantly associated with energetic arousal and calmness, but not valence. However, when physical activities of daily living were more autonomously regulated, the association of physical activities of daily living and valence became significant and positive.ConclusionThe findings regarding the significant moderating effects of need satisfaction are crucial for interventions aiming to improve the health-enhancing effects of physical activity in adults aged 50+. Positive feelings owing to physical activities in daily living depend on the extent that psychological needs are satisfied. published

Objectives. Although regular exercise is important for patients with coronar y artery disease (CAD), most CA Dp atients ar en ot sufficientl ya ctive. Th e transtheoretical model offers af ramework for the process of exercise behaviour change .B ut until today, it is not clear which processes of exercise behaviour change (POC) suppor tC AD patients in maintaining exercise after discharge. Design. Al ongitudinal study with baseline measure and 6-month follow-up has been conducted. German CA Dp atients wer em ailed at home after discharge .P OC and exercise wer es elf-reported. Methods. At otal of 204 CA Dp atients were selected from five rehabilitation centres. At otal of 108 CA Dp atients, which wer ei nt he post-action stages, provided data at baseline and follow-up .T wo different analyses wer ec arried out. Firstly, structural equation modelling with baseline data ( N ¼ 147) was used to test the hierarchical orde ro ft he POC in experiential and behavioural processes. Secondly, cross-lagged panel analysis was used to investigate whether POC lead to exercise or vice versa and which POC suppor tC AD patients in maintaining exercise. Results. Comparativ ea nalysis indicates that the two hierarchical-factor model fits the data significantly better than the one hierarchical-factor model ( x 2 diff ð 1 Þ ¼ 19: 04, p , : 001), even though experiential and behavioural processes ar eh ighly correlated ( r ¼ : 98, p , : 001). Standardized effects of the antecedent cross-lags ar es ignificant for consciousness raising ( b ¼ 0 : 27), reinforcement management ( b ¼ 0 : 28), selfliberation ( b ¼ 0 : 28), and stimulus control ( b ¼ 0 : 33) indicating that these POC ar e predictive for CA Dp atients maintaining exercise. Conclusion. Although some POC support the exercise behaviour change process and the hierarchical structure is apparent, it ma yb eb eneficial to adapt the POC to giv e am ore precise understanding of the change processes.

Psychological research uses multifarious assessment strategies to describe and to explain emotional and cognitive processes accompanying behavior in order to predict future behavior. However, laboratory assessments and questionnaire approaches dominate psychology, which has been criticized lately (Baumeister et al., 2007). In general, the appropriateness of a method or an instrument depends on the research questions. Observational methods are on the shortlist if behavior is the construct in focus. Questionnaires are appropriate where attitudes or personal traits should be described. Compared to traits, which are by definition stable in time and consistent across different situations, affective constructs like emotions, mood, and affective reactions tend to be highly volatile. Affective dynamics are caused by internal and external influences of high variance, e.g., by bad or good news, by hormonal variations, etc. (Schlicht et al., 2013). Questionnaires to investigate affective states presume too much regarding subjects' power of memory. As different authors point out, memory processes are open to biases and distortions (e.g., Kahneman et al., 2004). This is the same if subjects are asked to remember their volume of physical activity. The time, which one has invested in a sports game, in a tennis match or walking in a group or in other similar types of structured physical activity is often easy to remember. Questionnaires might be appropriate instruments to get reliable data in these situations. This is not the case with exercise bouts and with low intense physical activity like non-exercise thermogenesis, activities of daily living or all kinds of activities done during the course of a normal day. Only accelerometers or other types of electronic monitors registering data (e.g., bio data such as heart rate) will deliver valid and reliable information. Another methodological question is raised if research seeks to gain data out of subjects' real life. If the ecological validity should be convincing research has to go into everyday life using a suitable approach to get valid and reliable data. Ambulatory Assessment (AA) or ecological momentary assessment is an appropriate and promising approach for infield real time investigations. The Society for Ambulatory Assessment—Understanding Behavior in Context defines AA as any use of “… infield methods to assess ongoing behavior, physiology, experience, and environmental aspects of humans …” (http://www.ambulatory-assessment.org; last access 03. October 2013). Meanwhile, AA has gained increasing interest in psychology, has been used in countless studies and reviews, and several special issues have been published (e.g., in European Psychologist edited by Ebner-Priemer et al. (2009); in Psychological Assessment edited by Trull and Ebner-Priemer (2009); and in Psychosomatice Medicine, edited by Kubiak and Stone (2012). An internet search for AA delivers 11,100,000 entries and one article in Wikipedia. One can get the impression that those activities prove that AA is nowadays a common method in psychology, but it isn't. AA is still an approach needing special expertise. Real time data collection requires specialized hard- and software and that resulting longitudinal data needs sophisticated statistical analyses. Devices for AA are computer-aided and allow for the collection of a huge variety of interesting parameters in daily life (for more details see Fahrenberg et al., 2002): self reported data (whereabouts, behaviors, settings); moods, affective reactions, symptoms like aches, commentaries; psychological tests infield; behaviors (e.g., physical activity; speech patterns); environmental conditions (e.g., noise, temperature); bio-markers (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, skin response). Although electronic diaries have gained increasing interest in psychology to assess variables of interest in real time, and although accelerometers are quite popular in sports and exercise science to objectively assess physical activity and movement pattern in everyday life, the combination of both methods is still alarmingly rare. To give researchers, in the context of physical activity and exercise psychology, guidance in the advantages and benefits of combining e-dairies with accelerometers, we invited experts to report their original studies. It resulted in a reader giving an impression of the fruitfulness of AA in this special field. The reader starts with a position statement done by the editors themselves (Kanning et al., 2013), making suggestions “how to investigate within-subject associations.” This statement is followed by an article written by Bossmann et al. (2013) looking for the association between short periods of everyday activity and mood. The authors examined the influence of various everyday life activities on three dimensions of mood (valence, calmness, energetic arousal) in a predominantly inactive sample. Bussmann (2013), the next author in the reader, provokes with his thesis that “One plus one equals three (or more…).” He is convinced that “the time is right to combine advanced methods of measuring movement behavior with advanced use of e-diaries/e-questionnaires” resulting not just in adding the values of both separate fields, but surpassing this sum. The same author, together with his co-author (Bussmann and van den Berg-Emons, 2013), discusses what can be measured beyond the total amount of activity. Contrary to health sciences where the volume or amount of physical activity is the crucial variable for determining the effect of this behavior in reducing the incidence of non-communicable diseases, Bussmann and his colleagues make the point that, when focussing other research questions, it is worth looking closer to single components of this multi-dimensional construct and to answer the methodological challenging question of which parameters are most relevant, valid and responsive in a given setting. An original research article done by Dunton et al. (2012) follows this theory article. They tested the feasibility and validity of an EMA self-report protocol using electronic surveys on mobile phones. It is feasible and data are valid, but the volume of physical activity is underestimated, especially for those persons underweight or normal weight. Ebner-Priemer et al. (2013) highlight the problem that physical activity can be monitored continuously, whereas psychological variables can only be assessed at discrete intervals. The challenge is to link both types of variables. The authors propose an interactive multimodal ambulatory monitoring algorithm, which automatically increases the number of e-diary assessments during “active” episodes. Kanning (2013) uses objective, real-time measures to investigate the effect of actual physical activity on affective states in everyday life. In her original research article she reports a study differentiating the contexts of working and leisure time in a sample with students. There is an interesting moderator effect identified by multilevel analyses: Active episodes of physical activity and the context influenced subsequent energetic arousal. Valence and calmness seemed to be independent of the context in which the activity occurs. From work and leisure time the next text goes to pupils in elementary schools. Kuhnhausen et al. (2013) asked if and how it is possible to collect valid and reliable data in this special group of very young participants. It is feasible to objectively measure children's activity using accelerometers for a period of several weeks. In this investigation an impact of physical activity on affect in children was not shown. Murphy et al. (2012) original research focuses on another group of participants; those with chronic pain. They investigate the association between symptoms, pain coping strategies and physical activity among patients with symptomatic knee and hip osteoarthritis. The higher the body mass index, subjective feelings of fatigue, and using “guarding” as coping method, the lower the activity levels have been. “Asking for assistance,” another coping method was related to higher activity levels. Schwerdtfeger et al. (2012) report an ecological 108 momentary intervention study using a randomized experimental design. In the treatment group they used text messages to increase physical activity and to induce breaks of sedentary time in contrast to a group only having an educational standard intervention and an untreated control group. It is perhaps against our expectations, but short text messages reminding subjects of their action plans are not more effective than an intervention without text messages. However, it is comforting to see that there seems to be a beneficial effect on subject's self-efficacy and, as is known, this is a very strong predictor of behavior change. Two articles in which von Haaren is a contributor (von Haaren et al., 2013; and Walter et al., 2013) close the series of articles. The second to last original research article done by von Haaren launches an interesting debate. Following their results, they state that analysing the physical activity and affect association of inactive people is difficult due to little variance and distribution of the assessed variables. In the last article in this reader Walter et al. found non-statistically significant increases in mood intensity immediately after acute endurance exercise episodes. Perhaps surprisingly, no medium term effects in mood states could be observed after a few weeks of endurance training, too. Given the combination of texts the reader has a colorful bouquet of different inquiries in his hands and we hope this launches more studies in the natural environment assessing behavior in real settings.

Regularly conducted exercise programs effectively influence affective states. Studies suggest that this is also true for short bouts of physical activity (PA) of 10 min or less. Accordingly, everyday life activities of short duration might be used to regulate affective states. However, this association has rarely been studied in reference to unstructured activities in ongoing real-life situations. The current study examined the influence of various everyday life activities on three dimensions of mood (valence, calmness, energetic arousal) in a predominantly inactive sample. Ambulatory Assessment (AA) was used to investigate the association between actual PA and affective states during the course of 1 day. Seventy-seven students ages 19-30 participated in the study. PA was assessed with accelerometers, and affective state assessments were conducted hourly using an e-diary with a six-item mood scale that was specially designed for AA. Multilevel analyses indicated that the mood dimensions energetic arousal (p = 0.001) and valence (p = 0.005) were positively influenced by the intensity of the activity carried out in the 10-min prior to the assessment. As their activity increased, the participants' positive feelings and energetic arousal increased. However, the students' calmness was not affected by their activity levels. The findings highlight the importance of integrating short activity intervals of 10 min or less into everyday life routines to improve affective states. published

Studies have shown that physical activity influences affective states. However, studies have seldom depicted these associations in ongoing real-life situations, and there is no investigation showing that motivational states (i.e., more or less autonomously regulated) would moderate these effects in situ. To investigate the interaction of autonomous regulation and actual physical activity (aPA) with affective states, we use an ambulatory assessment approach. The participants were 44 university students (mean age: 26.2 ± 3.2 years). We assessed aPA through 24-hr accelerometry and affective states and autonomous regulation via electronic diaries. Palmtop devices prompted subjects every 45 min during a 14-hr daytime period. We performed hierarchical multilevel analyses. Both aPA and autonomous regulation significantly influenced affective states. The interaction was significant for two affects. The higher the volume of aPA and thereby the more autonomously regulated the preceding bout of aPA was, the more our participants felt energized (r = .16) but agitated (r = −.18).

The positive effects of physical activity on mood are well documented in cross-sectional studies. To date there have been only a few studies analyzing within-subject covariance between physical activity and mood in everyday life. This study aims to close this gap using an ambulatory assessment of mood and physical activity. Thirteen participants completed a standardized diary over a 10-week period, resulting in 1,860 measurement points. Valence, energetic arousal, and calmness are the three subscales of mood that were assessed. Participants rated their mood promptly after self-selected activities. A multilevel analysis indicates that the three dimensions of mood were positively affected by episodes of physical activity, such as walking or gardening—valence: t(12) = 5.6, p < .001; energetic arousal: t(12) = 2.4, p = .033; calmness: t(12) = 2.8, p = .015. Moreover, the association is affected by the individual baseline mood level, with the greatest effect seen when mood is depressed.