Low participation in and poor adherence to regular exercise
presents a major challenge for health promotion programs. A
growing body of evidence suggests that health education programs
that are developed using the principles of Bandura’s (1986)
Self—Efficacy Theory have shown success in maintaining a variety
of health related behaviors. Exercise behavior however, is often
more time consuming and requires more effort than most other
health related behaviors, thus it remains to be seen whether
adult health education programs which are intended to develop
exercise self—efficacy, will indeed increase participation in,
and adherence to regular exercise.
After reviewing the available literature, an adult health
education program was developed by the researcher that combined
the principles from Bandura’s (1986) theoretical model of Self-
Efficacy, with concepts and intervention strategies drawn from
the literature in adult education, health education and exercise
psychology. Green and Kreuter’s (1991) Precede-Proceed
framework, an outcome—based health education planning model was
used for the planning, implementation and evaluation processes
of this adult health education program in a community setting.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of
the intervention program on exercise self—efficacy and the
participation in leisure-time physical activity at the end of
the five week program and at the end of a five week follow-up
period. Thirty nine female residents from U.B.C. Acadia Park
family housing were recruited for this study. The subjects were matched and paired and then randomly assigned to either an
experimental or control group. Both groups received a five week
program of nine, ninety minute sessions. The experimental group
received a program that focused on the self-regulation of
exercise behavior and the control group received a traditional
health education program based on standard health information.
It was hypothesized that the experimental group would
participate more frequently in exercise, and have higher
exercise self—efficacy on completion of the five week program,
and at the end of the five week follow-up period. The
participation in exercise was measured using the 7—Day Recall
Exercise Behavior Questionnaire (Godin and Shephard 1985) and
exercise self—efficacy was assessed using the Exercise Self—
Efficacy Scale (Marcus et al. 1992). The data were analyzed
using a two way analysis of variance, group (two) by time
(three) factorial design with repeated measures on the second
factor for each dependent variable. In addition, Green and
Kreuter’s (1991) Proceed evaluation framework was used to
describe how learning was applied following the intervention
program.
The quantitative analysis indicated that the experimental
group participated in a significantly higher frequency of
exercise and had significantly higher levels of exercise self—
efficacy at the end of the five week program and at the end of
the five week follow-up period than the control group (p<0001).
The Proceed evaluation revealed that the participants differed
in their understanding of the self-regulatory strategies, their adaptation of these strategies, previous experience with
exercise motivation, stages and rates of exercise adoption,
personal resources and perceived power, social support, and
perceived exercise self-efficacy. The hypotheses were supported
by the results of this study and suggest that a health education
program that is based on Bandura’s (1986) theory of self-
efficacy and that focuses on the self—regulation of exercise
behavior is effective for increasing and maintaining leisure-
time physical activity.Education, Faculty ofKinesiology, School ofGraduat