Description:

Encouraging people to initiate and maintain physical activity to achieve heaith
benefits continues to be challenge to health professionals. The stages, decisional
balance, and self-eficacy constructs of the Transtheoretical Mode1 were used to
investigate both initiating @ = 88), and continuing @ = 75) exercise for females
enrolled in 12 week fitness classes. Efficacy differentiated participants in
maintenance from those in preparation and action at baseline and week 12.
Participants who remained in the same stage over time reported significantly higher
combined eficacy scores than those who moved back stages or advanced stages. A
significant interaction was found for efficacy x attendance indicating that: (a) efficacy
scores declined significantly over time for low attendance, and @) week 12 eficacy
scores declined significantly over high, medium, and low attendance. The
maintenance stage at baseline was the only significant predictor of adherence at week
12 and accounted for 6% of the variance adherence.