Positive Emotion Is Associated with Attentional Focus on Physical Activity and Eating in Adolescents: A Daily Diary Study.

Background: There are emerging data linking positive emotion to health behaviors, yet the self-regulatory processes underlying this link are understudied. The purpose of the current study was to examine the associations between daily positive emotion and daily attentional focus on physical activity and overeating as well as the moderating role of trait positive emotion arousal recovery.

Method: Adolescents (N = 47) aged 11 to 17 completed a baseline measure of their perceived positive emotion arousal regulation and a 7-day diary about their positive emotion and attentional focus.

Results: Both within-person increases in and greater average daily approach-oriented positive emotion were associated with greater daily attentional focus on physical activity and overeating. Quicker perceived trait approach-oriented positive emotion arousal recovery dampened the association between within-person increases in daily approach-motivated positive emotion and daily attentional focus on overeating but not physical activity.

Conclusion: Positive emotion can elicit a narrowing of attentional focus towards emotionally salient health behavior. Future studies should examine the full mechanistic pathway linking positive emotion to health behavior via attentional focus and arousal recovery.