Affective responses have been considered key determinants for exercise adherence, but
research on affective responses to stretching activities is scarce. Given the role of
these responses in exercise adherence, our aim in this review was to explore (a) the
utility and feasibility of core affect in stretching-related activities as measured by the
Feeling Scale (FS) and/or the Felt Arousal Scale (FAS); (b) the timing of administering
these scales; and (c) the scales’ applicability and interpretability in this context.
Inclusion criteria for studies in this review were experimental and non-experimental
studies written in English that based affect assessment on the FS and/or FAS and that
applied these scales to participants engaged in physical activity, individually or in
groups. We also considered studies that focused on stretching activities that were either
isolated or components of a class/activity and studies that used healthy participants of
any age. Exclusion criteria were populations with mental health problems, cancer,
diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, or diseases likely to alter pain
perception or be associated with chronic pain, instrument validation studies, gray
literature, and systematic reviews. We searched PubMed, SPORTDiscus and PsycINFO
databases, and we added studies retrieved manually from reference sections while following
PRISMA guidelines. We used the Effective Public Health Practice Project tool for judging
methodological quality of research articles. Our final analyses were based on 12 empirical
studies published between 2003 and 2021with a total of 718 participants. Both scales were
found to be useful and feasible in the most usual places for exercise, but core affect
results cannot be properly interpreted due to variability of study protocols and the
absence of guidelines for adequate baseline assessment. Most studies recorded affect
responses pre-session, during session, and post-session. We observed no standardized
timing or frequency of assessment, and there was high heterogeneity among stretching
protocols. Currently, research in core affect assessment of stretching-related activities
lacks sufficient methodological quality to draw generalizable conclusions.