KeonYoung Chung, Marcelo Cabral, Caitlin McClugage, Spyridoula Vazou

Peers play a vital role in motivating young adults to engage in physical activity, which can have lasting effects throughout their lives. Despite the importance of high-quality peer interactions, limited research has examined the peer motivational climate in physical activity setting using experimental designs. The purpose of this study was to examine the acute effect of peer motivational climate on young adults’ situational basic psychological needs, enjoyment, and intention to continue physical activity. A total of 146 university students (64% female; aged 19- 29 years) participated and were randomly assigned to either Lower Peer Ego-involving Climate (LPEC) or Higher Peer Ego-involving Climate (HPEC). Participants engaged in a 30-minute group-based physical activity session during which confederates promoted one of the two peer motivational climates. Independent t-tests, repeated-measures ANOVA, and two-way MANOVA were conducted using SPSS. Results showed that participants in the HPEC reported higher enjoyment than those in LPEC. However, participants in both conditions reported a similar increase in positive affect during the physical activity session. Within the LPEC, participants with higher task goal orientation perceived greater situational competence need satisfaction than those with lower task goal orientation. The findings suggest that exercise can be enjoyable regardless of the level of peer ego-involving climate when high peer task-involving climate is present. However, it is important to minimize peer ego-involving climate to enhance perceived competence in exercise settings. Therefore, key stakeholders should be aware of the prevailing peer motivational climates and guide participants in fostering a task-involving climate to optimize exercise experiences.