All exercisers are passionate for exercise in some way: Taxometric evidence of the dimensionality of harmonious and...

The dualistic model of passion presents two important variables in the maintenance of physical exercise throughout life: harmonious passion and obsessive passion. Understanding whether the latent structure of these variables is better represented by classes (categorical) or factors (dimensional) can yield both theoretical and practical benefits. The objective of our study was to test, using taxometric analysis, whether these are dimensional latent variables (present in all exercisers, varying only in level) or categorical (present only in some exercisers). In a community sample of 1143 Brazilian exercisers with ages ranging from 18 to 71 years (M = 33.17; SD = 11.86), we conducted taxometric analysis using three non-redundant procedures at multiple base rates. Our results indicated the dimensionality of both harmonious and obsessive passion, which means that both are present, to some degree, in all exercisers. Evidence for harmonious passion was weaker due to high within-group correlations between the indicators. These findings can aid in the refinement of the construct and its measures, as well as in planning strategies to promote physical exercise by increasing levels of harmonious passion and preventing/treating exercise dependence through interventions aimed at reducing obsessive passion.