What older adolescents expect from physical activity: Implicit cognitions regarding health and appearance outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To explore older adolescents' reflective and impulsive thoughts about health- and social/appearance-related physical activity (PA) outcomes and investigate how those thoughts relate to their PA behavior. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and forty-four undergraduate students (109 women; 35 men) aged 17-19 years (M = 18.11, SD = 0.65) participated in this study in October 2015. METHODS: Participants completed a Go/No-go Association Task that assessed automaticity of associations between PA words and either health outcomes or social/appearance outcomes. Questionnaires assessing PA behavior, attitudes, outcome expectations, and body image were also completed. RESULTS: Participants demonstrated a positive automatic association between PA and social/appearance outcomes, F(1, 136) = 4.403, p < .05, η2 = .031, but they showed no difference in their associations between PA and desirable or undesirable health outcomes, F(1, 136) = 2.405, p = .123, η2 = .017. CONCLUSIONS: Older adolescents implicitly attend to the social/appearance outcomes of PA more than potential health outcomes, indicating that social recognition and a desirable physique may be the key PA motivators for adolescents.