A change in multiple healthy lifestyle behaviours is needed to reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases and create a public
health impact. Multiple health behavior change programs are however not always effective, possibly due to goal conflicts between
several health behaviours. The aims of the current research are to understand how goal interference/facilitation are associated with
multiple health behaviour change in the field of physical activity and healthy diet, and what the mediating roles of compensatory
health beliefs and other self-regulatory processes are. This project hereby integrates literatures on goal
interference/facilitation and compensatory health beliefs in one integrated theoretical model. This association will be tested in an Ecological Momentary
Assessment (EMA) study, combined with device-measured behaviours (activity trackers, food log apps) and end-of-day diaries. EMA
studies can have higher ecological validity and lower retrospective bias than traditional surveys. The focus of this project is on
higher-level (e.g. values) and lower-level goals (concrete actions), which will be studied with implicit measures. This research
will be conducted in a first study on implicit measures for goal interference and facilitation with 45 participants from a general
adult population. A second study will consist of the EMA study, which will be conducted among participants from a general adult
population, using random time-based sampling during a total of 12 measurement days across 3 months. We hypothesize that the implicit
measures will be valid and acceptable to participants (study 1); for goal interference between healthy diet and physical activity
to be associated with negative affect; and for compensatory health beliefs, but not coping strategies and goal-review, to have a
negative effect on multiple behaviour change when used to address this negative affect.