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Jennifer Inauen, Patrick E. Shrout, Niall Bolger, Gertraud Stadler, Urte Scholz, Mind the Gap? An Intensive Longitudinal Study of Between-Person and Within-Person Intention-Behavior Relations, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Volume 50, Issue 4, August 2016, Pages 516–522, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-016-9776-x
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Abstract
Despite their good intentions, people often do not eat healthily. This is known as the intention-behavior gap. Although the intention-behavior relationship is theorized as a within-person process, most evidence is based on between-person differences.
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the within-person intention-behavior association for unhealthy snack consumption.
Young adults (N = 45) participated in an intensive longitudinal study. They reported intentions and snack consumption five times daily for 7 days (n = 1068 observations analyzed).
A within-person unit difference in intentions was associated with a halving of the number of unhealthy snacks consumed in the following 3 h (CI95 27–70 %). Between-person differences in average intentions did not predict unhealthy snack consumption.
Consistent with theory, the intention-behavior relation for healthy eating is best understood as a within-person process. Interventions to reduce unhealthy snacking should target times of day when intentions are weakest.