Dispositional Mindfulness Predicts Adaptive Affective Responses to Health Messages and Increased Exercise Motivation

Abstract

Feelings can shape how people respond to persuasive messages. In health communication, adaptive affective responses to potentially threating messages constitute one key to intervention success. The current study tested dispositional mindfulness, characterized by awareness of the present moment, as a predictor of adaptive affective responses to potentially threatening health messages and desirable subsequent health outcomes. Both general and discrete negative affective states (i.e., shame) were examined in relation to mindfulness and intervention success. Individuals (n=67) who reported less than 195 weekly minutes of exercise were recruited. At baseline, participants' dispositional mindfulness and exercise outcomes were assessed, including self-reported exercise motivation and physical activity. A week later, all participants were presented with potentially threatening and self-relevant health messages encouraging physical activity and discouraging sedentary lifestyle, and their subsequent affective response and exercise motivation were assessed. Approximately one month later, changes in exercise motivation and physical activity were assessed again. In addition, participants' level of daily physical activity was monitored by a wrist worn accelerometer throughout the entire duration of the study. Higher dispositional mindfulness predicted greater increases in exercise motivation one month after the intervention. Importantly, this effect was fully mediated by lower negative affect and shame specifically, in response to potentially threatening health messages among highly mindful individuals. Baseline mindfulness was also associated with increased self-reported vigorous activity, but not with daily physical activity as assessed by accelerometers. These findings suggest potential benefits of considering mindfulness as an active individual difference variable in theories of affective processing and health communication.

Keywords: affect; health communication; mindfulness; physical activity; shame.

Figures

Figure 1

Overall study protocol. BDI = Beck Depression Inventory; BREQ-2 = Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-version 2; IPAQ = International Physical Activity Questionnaire; MAAS = Mindful Attention Awareness Scale; PANAS = Positive and Negative Affect Scale; SMS = Short Message Service.

Figure 2

Heuristic models of the predicted relationships between dispositional mindfulness and (a) general negative affect and (b) shame on exercise motivation at T3. Formal tests of mediation (bootstrapping; Preacher & Hayes, 2008) provided evidence that both general negative affect and shame mediated the effect of mindfulness on increased motivation to exercise one month after the health message presentation (bias corrected confidence intervals=0.0196 to 1.1628 and 0.0049 to 1.4982 for negative affect and shame, respectively). Note: *p<.05, **p<.01. a. Mediation by negative affect b. Mediation by shame

Figure 2

Heuristic models of the predicted relationships between dispositional mindfulness and (a) general negative affect and (b) shame on exercise motivation at T3. Formal tests of mediation (bootstrapping; Preacher & Hayes, 2008) provided evidence that both general negative affect and shame mediated the effect of mindfulness on increased motivation to exercise one month after the health message presentation (bias corrected confidence intervals=0.0196 to 1.1628 and 0.0049 to 1.4982 for negative affect and shame, respectively). Note: *p<.05, **p<.01. a. Mediation by negative affect b. Mediation by shame