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More future-oriented, more physically active: the mediating role of physical activity intentions and the moderating role of societal injunctive norms

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Abstract

This study focused on the relationship between future orientation (i.e., future temporal focus, FTF) and physical activity (PA), aiming to examine the mediating role of PA intention and the moderating role of societal descriptive and injunctive norms. A two-wave longitudinal design was used to examine the hypothesized moderated mediation model. Data were collected from 461Chinese adults (mean age = 31.48 years, standard deviation = 7.61). The results exhibited a significant indirect effect of future temporal focus on PA via PA intention. Furthermore, societal injunctive norms moderated the association between FTF and PA intention, such that the respective association was stronger at higher levels of societal injunctive norms. The study findings revealed potential mechanisms underlying the impact of future orientation on PA and the synthetic effect of FTF and societal injunctive norms on PA via PA intention. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

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Funding

This study is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (22CSH046) to Miao Miao; the Duansheng Qian Distinguished Scholars Support Project (1211-1140065150), the Young Teachers’ Academic Innovation Team Project (21CXTD04), and Emerging discipline construction project (22ZFXXXK02) in China University of Political Science and Law to Shuangqing Liu.

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Correspondence to Miao Miao.

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Liu, S., Miao, M. More future-oriented, more physically active: the mediating role of physical activity intentions and the moderating role of societal injunctive norms. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05879-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05879-9

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