Geropsychology Commons^™

Let's Get Physical: Exploring The Socioemotional Motivators Of Group Exercise For Older Adults, Tessneem S. Hasan, Alyssa R. Minton, Jason Snyder, Joseph A. Mikels

DePaul Discoveries

Approximately 75% of active adults in the U.S. do not meet the recommended levels of overall physical activity (CDC, 2021a). Given the beneficial impact of physical activity on health, an 8-week long, evidence-based group exercise program—Fit & Strong! (F&S!)—was created to improve the health of older adults (Hughes et al., 2004, 2006, 2010). Despite the clear physical benefits of F&S!, it remains unknown what motivates F&S! participants to initially participate in the program and also throughout the program. Drawing from core notions of socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Carstensen, 2006), research has found that older adults are highly motivated to exercise …

Obesogenic Environments And Cardiovascular Disease: A Path Analysis Using Us Nationally Representative Data, Fangqi Guo, Georgiana Bostean, Vincent Berardi, Alfredo J. Velasquez, Jennifer W. Robinette

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction

People living in obesogenic environments, with limited access to healthful food outlets and exercise facilities, generally have poor health. Previous research suggests that behavioral risk factors and indicators of physiological functioning may mediate this link; however, no studies to date have had the requisite data to investigate multi-level behavioral and physiological risk factors simultaneously. The present study conducted serial and parallel mediation analyses to examine behavioral and physiological pathways explaining the association between environmental obesogenicity and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods

This cross-sectional observational study used data from the 2012–2016 Health and Retirement Study, a representative survey of US older …