The COVID-19 pandemic has become a public health emergency of international concern, which may have affected lifestyle habits and mental health. Based on national health profile assessments, this study investigated perceived changes of lifestyle habits in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and associations between perceived lifestyle changes and mental health in Swedish working adults. Among 5599 individuals (50% women, 46.3 years), the majority reported no change (sitting 77%, daily physical activity 71%, exercise 69%, diet 87%, alcohol 90%, and smoking 97%) due to the pandemic. Changes were more pronounced during the first wave (April–June) compared to the second (October–December). Women, individuals <60 years, those with a university degree, white-collar workers, and those with unhealthy lifestyle habits at baseline had higher odds of changing lifestyle habits compared to their counterparts. Negative changes in lifestyle habits and more time in a mentally passive state sitting at home were associated with higher odds of mental ill-health (including health anxiety regarding one’s own and relatives’ health, generalized anxiety and depression symptoms, and concerns regarding employment and economy). The results emphasize the need to support healthy lifestyle habits to strengthen the resilience in vulnerable groups of individuals to future viral pandemics and prevent health inequalities in society.

The ability to examine within-person change is essential to test process-based theories in sport and exercise psychology. Longitudinal data, whether experimental or observational, are prerequisites to be able to examine change processes, but most longitudinal studies in sport and exercise psychology focus solely on between-person/group differences, not on within-person change. In this review, we (1) provide researchers in the sport and exercise psychology field with a framework for longitudinal research that focuses on within-person change; (2) provide an overview of how researchers in sport and exercise psychology currently analyse longitudinal data, which showed that most longitudinal studies focus on between-person/group differences; and (3) provide examples of statistical models for analysing longitudinal data that correspond to the framework for longitudinal research. In the examples, we focus on latent variable modelling, such as latent growth-curve modelling and latent change-score modelling, which capture within-person change. We argue that there is a need for stronger emphasis on the match among theory of change, temporal design, and statistical models when designing longitudinal studies in sport and exercise psychology.

We examined both direct and indirect effects of the Healthy Body Image (HBI) intervention on positive embodiment among Norwegian high school students. In total, 2446 12th grade boys (43 %) and girls (mean age 16.8 years) from 30 schools participated in a cluster-randomized controlled study with the HBI intervention and a control condition as the study arms. We tested mediation models using path analysis and found that among several hypothesized mediators, only self-esteem mediated a positive intervention effect on positive embodiment for both boys and girls. A direct effect of the intervention on positive embodiment was only found in girls. The study provides novel findings indicating that health promotion interventions to address a positive embodiment should focus on enhancing adolescent's self-esteem. Serial mediation modeling might reveal more complex explanations of change mechanisms and could further evolve current knowledge.

Objective: This study examined the effects of consistency tendency on the predictive power of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in relation to physical activity behavior. Methods: In this randomized controlled cross-over trial, we recruited 770 undergraduate students from Indonesia who were randomly assigned into two groups. Participants completed physical activity versions of TPB measures at T1 (baseline) and T2 (post 1 week), and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire at T3 (post 1 month). At T1 and T2, the TPB questions were either presented in ensemble-order (i.e., consistency tendency supressed) or alternate-order (i.e., consistency tendency facilitated). Results: The parameter estimates of the model (CFI > .92, TLI > .90, SRMR < .08, RMSEA < .08) aligned with the tenets of TPB. As compared to ensemble-order, a TPB measured in alternate-order yielded stronger cross-sectional relationships, but this pattern did not appear in the prospective relationships in TPB (i.e., intention/perceived behavioral control and behavior). Conclusions: Consistency tendency inflated the factor correlations of cross-sectionally measured TPB variables, but the inflation was not observed in the prospective prediction of behavior. Health psychology questionnaires with items presented in ensemble order may represent a viable means of reducing the confounding effect of consistency tendency.

Objective: Previous studies focused on the benefits of acute exercise on cognition and mood have mostly used specialized laboratory-based equipment, thus little is known about how such protocols generalize to naturalistic settings. Stair climbing is a simple and readily accessible means of exercise that can be performed in naturalistic settings (e.g., at home or at the workplace). In the present study we examined the effects of stair-climbing intervals on subsequent cognitive performance and mood in healthy young adults. Method: Thirty-two undergraduate students (M_age = 19.4 years, SD = 1.3; 21 females) completed a controlled randomized crossover trial with session order counterbalanced across participants. Participants visited the lab on two occasions, one week apart, and completed one control session (no exercise) and one stair-climbing session (3 × 1 min stair-climbing intervals) with cognitive performance and mood assessed at the end of each session. Results: Repeated measures ANCOVA revealed that males (Hedges’ g_av = 0.45) showed better switching performance following the stair climbing but females (Hedges’ g_av < 0.03) did not. Participants felt more energetic (Hedges’ g_av = 1.05), less tense (Hedges’ g_av = 0.61), and less tired (Hedges’ g_av = 0.43) following the stair climbing. In addition, higher exercise intensity during the stair climbing predicted better subsequent switching performance and higher energetic ratings. Conclusion: These findings indicate that short bouts of stair climbing in a naturalistic setting can induce cognitive benefits for more challenging tasks, albeit only in males, indicating a sex-specific effect. Short bouts of stair climbing can be a practical approach to increase feelings of energy in daily life.