Interventions to Promote Positive Affect and Physical Activity in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults—A Systematic Review

Interventions to promote physical activity (PA) in children, adolescents and young adults based on social-cognitive theories often fail to increase PA. In recent years, affect-based approaches have gained interest, but the current state of research is not sufficiently reported. Therefore, a systematic review about the influence of interventions to promote positive affect and PA enjoyment and PA in children, adolescents and young adults was conducted. Literature searches were carried out including studies published between September 2009 and April 2019. Intervention studies targeting healthy children, adolescents or young adults and measuring enjoyment and PA were included. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria, including five group-based PA interventions, three multi-component school interventions, two internet-based interventions and three exergaming interventions. Most studies use multiple components in their intervention. Group-based PA programs incorporating task-oriented teaching styles and opportunities for voluntary PA are most consistently associated with positive findings. This review shows moderate evidence of interventions for children, adolescents and young adults being effective in increasing enjoyment and PA. Besides physical education and comprehensive school interventions, heterogenous intervention designs limit the comparability of studies. Future research should focus on theory-based, multi-component interventions with mediator analyses.