Self-Regulatory Goal Motivational Processes in Sustained New Year Resolution Pursuit and Mental Wellbeing

Abstract

Recent research suggests people typically “give up” pursuing their New Year resolutions within the first month. The present study investigated goal features proposed to be implicated in promoting both mental wellbeing and sustained New Year resolution pursuit. Australian and UK participants (n = 182) took part in an online longitudinal study, including four timepoints over a two-month period. At baseline, participants listed the New Year resolution to which they were most committed, and completed self-report measures to assess mental wellbeing, goal flexibility and tenacity. At the follow-up surveys, participants completed the wellbeing measure and their New Year resolution commitment, effort and stickability. As predicted, flexibility predicted wellbeing across time, however, tenacity did not. Counter to prediction, neither flexibility nor tenacity reported at baseline predicted “sticking” with one’s New Year resolution. The predicted interaction between flexibility and tenacity was not significant. New Year resolutions focused predominantly on “diet” and “exercise” were predominantly the same resolutions previously pursued and tended to be relatively abstract. Although goal flexibility predicted greater wellbeing, the findings overall tend to support the view that people are not particularly good at sticking with their New Year resolutions. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Predictive capacity of COVID-19-related risk beliefs on weight management behaviors on a commercial weight loss program and speed of COVID-19 vaccination uptake: prospective cohort study

“…It should be noted that the majority of this sample was motivated to lose weight because of COVID-19; thus, it is not likely that the former sample would result in entirely different relationships, but instead potentially could show different magnitudes of the same relationships (e.g., stronger effects). Another important point about the time period is that data collection occurred shortly after New Years, which raises the possibility that this was a less motivated or successful sample for long-term weight loss for those focused on New Years resolutions [ 33 ]. However, average weight loss for this sample was similar to that of Noom samples who signed up during other parts of the year [ 34 , 35 ].…”

Adaptive Goal Processes and Underlying Motives That Sustain Mental Wellbeing and New Year Exercise Resolutions

“…The popularity of New Year resolutions may be linked with the 'fresh start effect', where people often choose to make changes at the start of a temporal milestone, such as a Monday, or the beginning of a new calendar year [5]. New Year resolutions offer an opportunity to reflect on the past year and to consider desired outcomes people wish to pursue in the coming year [6]. As with personal goals, New Year resolutions typically require people to take goalaligned actions and to remain resilient in overcoming difficulties or obstacles.…”

“…As with personal goals, New Year resolutions typically require people to take goalaligned actions and to remain resilient in overcoming difficulties or obstacles. Although people typically report a high commitment to their New Year resolutions and believe that they will achieve their resolutions, research indicates that they are not particularly good at sticking with them beyond a few weeks [6,7].…”

“…The most reported New Year resolution is exercise or physical activity [6][7][8]. Increased exercise adherence is associated with mental and physical health benefits [9].…”

“…New Year represents a naturally rich ecological seasonal context for setting personal goal resolutions. Whereas Dickson and colleagues' [6] research studied New Year resolutions across a range of domains, our first aim is to investigate whether specific goal motivational mechanisms (goal flexibility, goal tenacity) predict sustained exercise resolution pursuit and mental wellbeing. Next, we aim to investigate, for the first time, whether distinct motives for pursuing exercise-related resolutions facilitate increased exercise adherence and mental wellbeing over time.…”