Original articles  Sport psychology 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2002 September;42(3):360-7

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Application of the Transtheoretical Model to physically active adults

Buckworth J., Wallace L. S.

From the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA * The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

Background. A phys­i­cal­ly activ­ity life­style has estab­lished ­health ben­e­fits, but inter­ven­tions to ­increase exer­cise adher­ence ­have had ­mixed suc­cess. Examining phys­i­cal­ly ­active indi­vid­u­als ­could pro­vide ­insight ­into strat­e­gies ­that are effec­tive for exer­cise main­te­nance. The pur­pose of ­this ­study was to com­pare ­active ­adults ­based on exer­cise ­stage clas­sifi­ca­tion [­action (ACT) and main­te­nance (MT)] accord­ing to the Transtheoretical Model (TTM). Physiological and psy­cho­so­cial dif­fer­enc­es ­between stag­es ­were hypoth­e­sized to be con­sis­tent ­with the­o­ry and pre­vi­ous ­research.
Methods. A ­cross-sec­tion­al ­design was ­used to exam­ine com­po­nents of the TTM, exer­cise behav­ior, rest­ing car­di­o­vas­cu­lar var­i­ables, and V.Opeak. Data ­from 57 phys­i­cal­ly ­active col­lege stu­dents (age= 21.2 ± 3.7 yrs, 67% ­female, 71.9% Caucasian) ­were includ­ed in the anal­y­sis. TTM var­i­ables and ­self-­report of behav­ior ­were meas­ured ­with estab­lished ­question­naires. V.Opeak was deter­mined ­from ­expired gas­es dur­ing a max­i­mal exer­cise ­test.
Results. Volume of week­ly exer­cise and num­ber of ­months con­sis­tent­ly ­active ­were sig­nif­i­cant­ly great­er for MT (n=35) ­than for ACT (n=22). When con­trol­ling for gen­der ­effects, V.Opeak and sys­tol­ic ­blood pres­sure ­were ­also great­er in MT ­than ACT. MT ­also ­scored high­er ­than ACT on dec­i­sion­al bal­ance (pros-cons of exer­cise) and 4 pro­cess­es of ­change.
Conclusions. Membership in MT and ACT stag­es was cor­rob­o­rat­ed by aero­bic capac­ity. Predicted dif­fer­enc­es in TTM com­po­nents ­were ­only par­tial­ly sup­port­ed, but behav­ior­al strat­e­gies ­were ­used ­more by par­tic­i­pants who ­were con­sis­tent­ly ­active long­er. Physically ­active indi­vid­u­als ­should be stud­ied ­over ­time to deter­mine if tar­get­ing behav­ior­al pro­cess­es of ­change ­will ­enhance ­long-­term exer­cise adher­ence.