Abstract
This study tested the effectiveness of individual exercise and sport counseling in a nonclinical setting. The COunseling based on Motives and goals in Exercise and sporT (COMET) approach focuses on individual motives and goals and aims to identify suitable activities. Participants experience different exercise and sport activities and reflect on them with a counselor, who applies motivational interviewing. A stratified randomized controlled design with 129 people was used. The intervention group took part in a counseling event, which included feedback on motives and goals, trial exercise and sport sessions, and structured reflection. Four weeks later, members of the group got a telephone booster. The control group received minimal intervention as written information. Results show that the counseling promoted motivational competence (η2 = .16), physical activity-specific self-control (η2 = .08), and the weekly volume of exercise and sport (η2 = .15), whereas it did not influence self-concordance. Further studies can investigate whether the COMET approach is also effective in other settings.
Highlights
This study tested the effectiveness of individual exercise and sport counseling in a nonclinical setting
Fifty-six participants were part of the IG, and 73 people belonged to the MICG
The results indicate that participants from the IG who underwent the exercise and sport counseling within the COMET approach improved their motivational competence (MC), their physical activity (PA)-specific SC, and their weekly volume of exercise and sport compared with participants from the MICG
Summary
This study tested the effectiveness of individual exercise and sport counseling in a nonclinical setting. The fact that preferences are not thematized more intensively in existing counseling concepts is surprising as the literature highlights the importance of addressing preferences in PA promotion (Whitlock et al, 2002; WHO, 2018) It is (implicitly) assumed that people are more likely to maintain an activity for a longer period of time if they perceive it as suitable and pleasurable. To fill the aforementioned gap, Schmid et al (2020) developed the COunseling based on Motives and goals in Exercise and sporT (COMET) approach, which considers an individual’s preferences comprehensively and systematically It aims to identify suitable types of activities for these individuals by standardized assessing and reporting back their motives and goals, giving them diverse exercise and sport experiences, and by taking the time to reflect on them in a structured way immediately after.
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