Exploring the Role of Identity and Self-Efficacy in Veterans’ Exercise Behavior

United States servicemembers experience a significant decline in physical activity (PA) after military service, increasing their already heightened risk for certain chronic conditions (e.g. cardiovascular disease, mental health conditions, cancer). Limited research explores how servicemembers’ experiences shape psychosocial constructs that may predict post-service health behaviors, such as exercise. This study examined the associations between exercise identity, military identity, barrier self-efficacy, and weekly exercise reported by veterans. A stepwise regression was conducted with a sample of alumni and students (n = 88) from two colleges to 1) examine whether exercise identity and military identity predict reported weekly exercise, and 2) evaluate the extent to which barrier self-efficacy moderates the relationship between military identity and exercise. The initial model with exercise and military identities as predictors was the best-fitting model, explaining 9.2% of the variance in self-reported weekly exercise (F (2, 85) = 5.39, p = 0.006). The interaction between military identity and self-efficacy was not significant, and exercise identity was the only variable that independently predicted weekly exercise (β = .339, 95%CI [47.01, 159.27], p < 0.001). Results reinforce the importance of exercise identity in shaping veteran exercise behavior. Exploring additional service-related psychosocial factors (e.g. disability identity, task self-efficacy) with more diverse samples may further elucidate the role that identity and self-efficacy may have in promoting the adoption and maintenance of veteran exercise.