Confidence about being active changes within the same person
A scoping review found that exercise-related self-efficacy fluctuates in everyday life, raising questions about how best to measure it.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Confidence in being physically active was not simply a stable personal trait in the studies reviewed. Repeated assessments detected changes within individuals over time, particularly with momentary measurements. This review mainly examined how that confidence was measured and how much it varied; it did not show that increasing confidence causes people to become more active.
Only some studies reported variability statistics, and measurement wording and properties differed. The abstract does not establish the timing or causal direction of any relationship with physical activity.
What researchers found
Within-person share of self-efficacy variability
Range reported by 5 studies using intraclass correlations to separate changes within individuals from differences between individuals; repeated assessment schedules in the review ran from within-day to weekly.
Confidence in everyday life
Self-efficacy here means confidence about carrying out physical activity. Most studies asked about the near future, such as the next few hours, allowing researchers to track how responses shifted during ordinary life.
Measurement choices matter
The questionnaire items followed self-efficacy theory, yet their wording, measurement properties, and origins differed. More frequent momentary assessments tended to show greater variation within a person than assessments made at the daily level.
The original publication
Daily Life Studies on Dynamic Within-person Fluctuations of Self-efficacy in the Physical Activity Context: A Scoping Review.
Vogelsang A, Nigg CR, Ebner-Priemer UW et al.
Sports Med Open · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41653233
- Record checked
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