Bh. Marcus et al., SELF-EFFICACY, DECISION-MAKING, AND STAGES OF CHANGE - AN INTEGRATIVEMODEL OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE, Journal of applied social psychology, 24(6), 1994, pp. 489-508
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.