Emotion regulation interventions on physical activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the effectiveness of emotion regulation (ER; i.e. intra-psychic tactic(s) to manage one’s emotions) interventions to change physical activity and to explore potential moderators of the findings. Eligible studies were published in a peer-reviewed journal in English, included an experimental design with physical activity as the dependent variable and ER as the independent variable, among adults (>18 yrs.). A literature search completed in March 2025, using six common databases, yielded 30 independent effect sizes. Random-effects meta-analysis, after removing four outliers (N = 1934), showed positive changes in physical activity favoring the intervention over the control group g = 0.24 (95% CI = 0.12 to 0.36). The point estimate, however, showed significant (Q = 40.32, p = 0.03) heterogeneity, and follow-up moderator analyses found that studies with smaller sample sizes, all-female samples, validated self-report of physical activity, feasibility designs, shorter interventions, and shorter follow-up assessments of physical activity reported significantly larger effect sizes when compared to larger samples, mixed gender samples, direct physical activity assessments, and effectiveness trials with longer durations and follow-up periods. Overall, the findings show that physical activity may change as a result of experimental intervention using ER approaches, but estimates are biased by preliminary phase studies.