Morning anticipated leisure pleasure and planned activity type jointly predict daily physical activity: An ecological...

Daily physical activity (PA) is shaped not only by stable intentions but also by affective expectations that fluctuate across days. Guided by the health action process approach (HAPA) and anticipatory affect perspectives, this study examined whether morning anticipated leisure pleasure (ALP) and planned leisure activity type were independently and interactively associated with same-day PA volume. By integrating morning ALP with day-level planned leisure context, this study clarifies how an early-day affective expectancy relates to same-day PA under varying daily contexts and identifies potential intervention targets for promoting daily PA in young adults.

A purposive sample of 160 predominantly young adults completed a 7-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol (87.4% response rate). Participants wore activPAL4™ micro triaxial accelerometers to objectively measure daily PA volume (MET·h). Morning surveys assessed ALP and planned leisure type (active, passive, or none/other). Multilevel linear regression models analyzed 883 daily records, controlling for demographics, health status, accelerometer wear time, and prior-night sleep quality.

At the within-person level, higher morning ALP was associated with greater same-day PA volume (b = 0.39, p < .001). Regarding main effects of planned leisure type, planning a passive leisure day (vs. none/other) was associated with lower PA volume (b = -0.41, p = .048), whereas planning an active leisure day showed no significant main effect (b = 0.23, p = .248). Planned leisure type moderated the ALP-PA association: the ALP slope was significantly stronger on active plan days than on none/other days (b = 0.76, p = .003). The corresponding moderation effect for passive plan days was not statistically significant (b = 0.53, p = .062).

Morning ALP may serve as an early-day indicator of affective expectancy relevant to PA. The findings suggest that morning ALP is more strongly associated with daily PA on days when participants plan active leisure. These findings may inform just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) that integrate early-day assessment of ALP with planning-based support for active leisure. Future interventions should test whether this approach promotes daily PA among young adults.