We understand that too much sedentary activity, especially as we age, is unhealthy. Less well understood is what motivates older adults to be physically active – over the course of the day and within their natural environments.
UNCG Associate Professor of Kinesiology Jaclyn Maher has pioneered methods to find out. We sat down to chat with the internationally recognized early-career scholar, who already has 70 publications and over 3,700 citations to her name.
“I’m passionate about being able to generate new knowledge and helping inform physical activity promotion efforts. That’s really powerful, I think. What keeps me coming back to this work is the freedom I have to explore the things that I am passionate about.”
Most researchers in Dr. Maher’s area study conscious motivations behind physical activity. Maher is seeking to understand how automatic, possibly unconscious, processes influence the physical activity of older adults: How cues in daily life lead one to take a walk, for example, and how people can design cues for themselves to develop physical activity habits. She is trying to help older adults be more active automatically, with less deliberation that requires conscious mental effort.
“Older adults represent one of the least active, most sedentary and fastest-growing segments of the population, which makes this work particularly impactful. There is a huge need and a lot of room to move the needle.”
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