Comparison of American and French College Students' Stage of Change for Muscular Fitness—Promoting Behaviors

Abstract

To examine psychosocial concomitants of stages of change for muscular fitness-promoting behavior among college students in America and France. Participants were from Lyon 1 University (Claude Bernard), France (n=71) and Oregon State University, United States (n=3). The main variables of interest were nationality, gendes srage of change, cons, pros, and self-efficacy. The majority of Americans reported being in action or maintenance, whereas the majority of French reported being in precontemplation or contemplation (66.2% vs. 56.8%, respectively, p < .001). The only theoretical variable that Americans (adjusted mean [M(adj.) = 9.2) and French (M(adj.) = 7.7) differed on was perceived pros (p <.00 1). Nationality, self-efficacy, and pros were the most important stage-of-change concomitants. Stage-of-change classification accuracy was 47.9%. This study questions whether the transtheoretical model is fully generalizable when applied to this specific behavioral application using a mixed-culture sample.