Relationship between Behavior Regulation and Stage of Change for Exercise Behavior among Undergraduates

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to adopt a behavior regulation of self-determination theory to investigate the attributes of stage of change among undergraduates. Furthermore, to test the relationships between trends in behavior regulation and the different attributes of stage of change during 18 month. The longitudinal approach survey was utilized in this study, and total 458 undergraduate students (male-228, female-230, aged 21.58±5.21) were participated and completed four questionnaires assessing stage of change for exercise and behavior regulation in the 18-month period. The measurement tools include the stage of change for exercise questionnaire and the behavior regulation in exercise questionnaire. All of the collected data has been analyzed by using two-approach cluster analysis and trend analysis. The results indicated that the behavior regulation could be the stage of change from the high, medium and low self-determined groups. The high self-determined had higher proportion of maintenance than low self-determined, and significantly higher integrated and identified regulation in the stage transitions. The low self-determined had higher proportion of precontemplation or contemplation than high self-determined, and significantly higher external regulation in the stage transitions. This study concluded that the behavior regulation was to change the stages of important factors, and the high self-determined was more conducive to the formation of regular exercise.