Original articles   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2001 March;41(1):124-31

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Scale construction for measuring attitude, beliefs, perception of control, and intention to exercise

Kerner M. S., Grossman A. H.

From the Division of Sports Sciences School of Health Professions Long Island University, New York, USA * New York University, New York, USA

Background. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a frame­work, the Fitness Attitude, Expectations of Others, Perceived Behavioral Control, and Intention to Exercise Scales ­were devel­oped. Professionals in exer­cise phys­iol­o­gy gen­er­at­ed ­items for the instru­ments. Experts in clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gy and exer­cise phys­iol­o­gy estab­lished con­tent valid­ity.
Methods. Each of the ­scale ­items is ­phrased in a rat­ing ­scale for­mat. Both uni­po­lar and bipo­lar ­scales ­were devel­oped ­with sev­en ­response choic­es ­offered. Following the ­pilot test­ing and sub­se­quent revi­sions, 19 ­items ­were ­retained in the Fitness Attitude Scale, sev­en ­items ­were ­retained in the Expectations of Others Scale, ­three ­items ­were ­retained in the Perceived Behavioral Control Scale, and 11 ­items ­were ­retained in the Intention to Exercise Scale.
Results. Correlation coef­fi­cients for the ­total instru­ments ­were sig­nif­i­cant­ly pos­i­tive for stabil­ity and inter­nal con­sis­ten­cy, rang­ing ­from α=0.75 to α=0.87. Exercise spe­cial­ists may ­wish to imple­ment the use of ­these ­scales in ­their prac­tic­es to devel­op inter­ven­tion tech­niques for the pro­mo­tion of pos­i­tive fit­ness atti­tudes, ­good per­cep­tion of con­trol ­over the abil­ity to exer­cise, and ­good inten­tions to exer­cise.
Conclusions. The pos­i­tive ­results in ­this ­study’s sam­ple sug­gest ­that ­these ­scales are ­ready for appli­ca­tion in the ­field, but ­they ­should be ­pilot-test­ed ­with ­each ­group to ­check reli­abil­ity ­with the par­tic­u­lar pop­u­la­tion.