A Study of Stage of Change of Exercise in Young Adults

Byun, Young Soon

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to identify the change processes for exercise behaviors in each stage. METHOD: Participants for this study were randomly selected from adults between the ages of 20-44. Data were collected using questionnaires over a 2 week period at the end of May, 2003. The instrument, Stages of exercise behavior change developed by Marcus et al. (1992b), and the instrument, Changing phases of exercise behaviors developed by Nigg et al. (1999) and translated by Kwon (2002) were used to investigate the behaviors. RESULT: 1. Related to stage of exercise behavior change of participants, it was found that 55.2% of participants exercised regularly. 2. Among the change processes according to stage of change showed that dramatic relief was the most frequently used process for all stages. Environmental reevaluation and social liberation were used most in the contemplation stage, while environmental reevaluation and stimulus control were used most in the preparation stage. In addition, scores for stimulus control and environmental reevaluation were high in the action stage. In the maintenance stage, social liberation and counter-conditioning were used most frequently. 3. The process of exercise behavior change which differentiates the stages of exercise behavior change were shown to be counter-conditioning, which was an influential factor that differentiates the contemplation stage and maintenance stage. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that change process management should be the focus to enhance the stage of change for exercise in this group.