Sport is a potential venue for more middle-aged adults to engage in sufficient physical activity for health benefits. Little is known about whether messaging interventions can motivate sport activity.
This experiment tested the impact of gain-framed messaging i. Results showed no differences between the experimental conditions, indicating there was no advantage of supplemental efficacy-enhancing information compared to gain-framed messages alone.
When the two messaging groups were collapsed, they showed significant increases for OEs related to travel, social affiliation, and stress relief immediately following experimental exposure, compared to the control group. Overall, there were few benefits attributed to messaging and no effects on self-reported sport registration or sport behavior. Discussion focuses on future messaging considerations that may more effectively motivate adult sport participation.
Understanding how to best communicate information about the benefits of regular physical activity PA and the conditions under which such information persuades people to become more active is important for interventions in health.
The communication of gainful messages and health outcomes relating to adult exercise, fitness and PA has been a popular area of study Brawley and Latimer, ; however, strategies for specifically communicating gainful attributes of adult sport have received almost no attention.
