1. Adventure Physical Activities and Personality Follow current projects
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Patrick Boudreau, MA Candidate and Ryan E. Rhodes, PhD
Behavioural Medicine Laboratory, School of Exercise Science, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
Background Results Conclusions
A large effect size describes the association between APA participants and the sensation seeking trait.
The mode of adventure physical activity moderates the association between participation in APA and sensation seeking, with air sports having the largest association.
APA participants are less likely than the comparison population to be associated with the personality trait of neuroticism.
A small effect size is found between participation in APA and more sensitivity to reward, but less sensitivity to punishment.
All 37 studies used cross-sectional/retrospective designs.
Adventure physical activities (APA), such as skydiving and rock-climbing, are gaining in popularity (Monasterio et al., 2016).
APA may prevent criminality, trigger humility and courage in participants, and be used as a mainstream intervention for positive mental health (Clough, Houge Mackenzie, Mallabon, & Brymer, 2016) .
Personality traits are consistent and enduring individual-level determinants of participation in physical activity (Rhodes & Boudreau, 2017). No meta-analysis has yet appraised the association between personality traits and participation in APA.
Figure 1. Measure of publication bias through a funnel plot of standard error for the sensation seeking trait analysis
Objectives
The purpose of this review was to evaluate the relationship between participation in APA and personality traits.
The following research questions guided this review:
- What are the personality trait correlates of participation in adventure physical activities?
- What is the size of the relationship?
Future Plans
Future research would benefit greatly from longitudinal designs examining the bi-directional effects of participation in APA and personality traits.
Personality traits are associated with participation in APA. Further research may examine other factors that are associated with participation in APA (e.g., flow, comaderie, and feeling a sense of control).
Table 2
Moderator analysis of the sensation seeking trait based on modes of APA
Research Design
We followed PRISMA guidelines to determine if articles were eligible for this review.
We used the databases PsychINFO, SPORTDiscus, Google Scholar and relevant reviews to identify 5691 English and French articles. A total of 37 articles met the eligibility criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis.
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