Conflicted goal engagement: undermining physical activity and health in late life.
OBJECTIVE
Pursuing health goals in very old age is a challenging task that may be undermined by conflicted goal engagement involving mismatched primary (behavior-focused) and secondary (motivation-focused) control striving. Our study explored whether one potentially detrimental combination of control strategies (low primary control/high secondary control) compromised 3-year indicators of everyday physical activity and blood oxygen saturation.


METHODS
We analyzed data from a representative sample of very old adults (n = 107) using simple slope regression analyses that tested the conditional effects of control striving on everyday physical activity and blood oxygen saturation.


RESULTS
We found a conflicted engagement effect wherein primary control predicted our outcomes only when secondary control was high. The lowest levels of everyday physical activity and blood oxygen saturation were found for older adults high in secondary control but low in primary control. A supplemental mediation analysis suggested everyday physical activity was the mechanism through which conflicted engagement undermined blood oxygen saturation.


CONCLUSIONS
Employing health maintenance strategies that promote motivation-focused thinking but discourage goal-directed behaviors (conflicted engagement) may compromise physical activity and health among very old adults. Further research is needed to determine whether control-enhancing interventions promote harmonious goal engagement and better health among these high-risk individuals.
Department of Psychology and umhamm8@myumanitoba.ca.
Jeremy M
JM
Hamm
Department of Psychology and Centre on Aging, University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada.
Judith G
JG
Chipperfield
Department of Psychology and.
Raymond P
RP
Perry
Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine.
Jutta
J
Heckhausen
Department of Psychology and.
Corey S
CS
Mackenzie
D056044:Actigraphy; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D056344:Executive Function / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008350:Manitoba / Q000453:epidemiology; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D010092:Oximetry / Q000295:instrumentation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011897:Random Allocation
Everyday physical activity; Goal engagement; Health and aging; Primary and secondary control.