PREDICTING THE ADOPTION AND MAINTENANCE OF EXERCISE PARTICIPATION USING SELF-EFFICACY AND PREVIOUS EXERCISE PARTICIPATION RATES

Objectives. To investigate the relationships among self-efficacy, chan ges in self-efficacy, past exercise participation, future exercise adh erence, and exercise program format. Methods. Two-year randomized tria l involving subjects (n = 63) participating in an aerobic exercise pro gram. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three exercise conditi ons: higher-intensity home-based exercise, higher-intensity class-base d exercise or lower-intensity home-based exercise. Results. Results in dicated that baseline self-efficacy and exercise format had significan t (p < .02), independent effects on adherence during the adoption and early maintenance phases of exercise behavior In contrast, in predicti ng long-term exercise program maintenance, a significant (p < .05) sel f-efficacy x exercise format interaction indicated that self-efficacy predicted adherence only in the supervised home-based exercise conditi ons. Results also suggest that baseline self-efficacy independent of t he effect of past adherence, significantly (p < .03) predicted exercis e adherence during the adoption phase, but not early maintenance phase , of exercise behavior Finally, adherence change during the adoption p hase Of exercise behavior significantly (p < .04) predicted year-one l evels of self-efficacy even after adjusting for the effect of baseline self-efficacy. Conclusions. These results suggest that exercise progr am format as well as an individual's initial cognitive and behavioral experiences in an exercise program play significant roles in determini ng exercise adherence.