The role of positive and negative social control for physical activity, reactance and affect

Abstract

Background: Positive and negative social control have been found to be differentially related to health behavior, reactance and affect: Positive social control displays rather beneficial associations whereas negative social control is rather detrimentally related to these outcomes. The vast majority of studies has examined associations between control, behavior and behavioral and affective outcomes in the context of risk behavior. This study set out to investigate these associations in the context of physical activity as a health-enhancing behavior. Methods: Overall, 120 overweight and obese participants reported on their received positive and negative social control from the intimate partner, affect after being controlled, reactance and concealing inactivity from partner daily across 28 days. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was assessed objectively using accelerometers. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Findings: Positive control was related to more MVPA (within-person), and feeling better after being controlled (within- and between-person). Negative control was related to less MVPA (within-person), to feeling worse after being controlled (within- and between-person), to more reactance (within- and between-person), and to more concealing inactivity (within- and between-person). Discussion: Positive and negative social control display beneficial and detrimental associations with behavior, behavioral and affective outcomes in the context of a health-enhancing behavior, i.e., physical activity. These effects are comparable to the context of risk behaviors.