SELF-EFFICACY, DECISION-MAKING, AND STAGES OF CHANGE - AN INTEGRATIVEMODEL OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE

Exercise has important health benefits but a large proportion of the p opulation is physically inactive. We examined the stages of readiness to exercise and their relationship to self-efficacy, the costs and ben efits of exercising, and self-report of physical activity in a sample of Rhode Island worksites. Using a three-step model-building approach, exploratory principal components analyses were followed by an examina tion of the stages of change model with confirmatory structural equati on modeling procedures. The model was then examined with longitudinal data. Confirmatory and longitudinal analyses showed an excellent fit b etween the model and the data. Results indicated that the costs and be nefits of exercise and self-efficacy for exercise were related to phys ical activity only indirectly, through the mediation of stage of readi ness to exercise. Structural modeling fit indices revealed that much o f the variation and covariation in physical activity was explained by the model. There is the potential to enhance the impact of exercise in terventions, by targeting them so as to address factors related to the se different stages of readiness.