Psychological Determinants of Physical Activity and the Prediction of Physical Activity Levels in African American Men

African American (AA) men experience disproportionally higher rates of non-communicable, chronic diseases (e.g., cardiovascular, type 2 diabetes, and renal failure) than White men. Physical activity (PA) is known to reduce the progression of CVD, type 2 diabetes, and renal failure. National statistics illustrate that AA men are less likely to get sufficient levels of PA to obtain health benefits. Although many factors (e.g., biomedical, socio-cultural) influence participation in PA, the psychological factors at the individual level are essential to beginning and maintaining activity. Therefore, understanding the psychological determinants of PA in AA men and their associations with meeting national guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity is vital to improving PA adherence and decreasing disease risk. This cross-sectional study used an online survey to obtain measures of the psychological determinants of PA in AA men and compared groups of AA men who were meeting aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines to AA men who were not meeting the guidelines. In total, 134 men responded to the survey. Of the respondents, 59.7% and 73.1% reported meeting current PA guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity, respectively. The majority of men (n = 119) reported engaging in moderate intensity leisure-time activity, with 85.1% doing at least 21-30 minutes per session. In this sample, 50% (n = 67) of the men reported doing muscle-strengthening activities of at least 21-30 minutes per session, with three sessions per week as the median number of sessions performed. The physical and socioeconomic characteristics of the two groups were similar. However, AA men who met aerobic PA guidelines scored significantly higher in autonomy, competence, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation, intrinsic regulation, task self-efficacy, and scheduling self-efficacy. AA men who met aerobic PA guidelines scored lower in “likegroup” and “showoff” on the AFFEXX questionnaire, indicating preferences to exercise alone and avoiding an audience. AA men who met muscle-strengthening guidelines demonstrated higher scores for autonomy, relative autonomy, coping self-efficacy, scheduling self-efficacy, “interest,” “honor,” “competence,” “energy,” “calmness,” and “attraction.” These findings identify potential psychological determinants that may be important when designing PA interventions to improve adherence to national PA guidelines in AA men.