Preventive Medicine 31, 494–505 (2000) doi:10.1006/pmed.2000.0736, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on Characteristics of Exercise Behavior among College Students: Application of Social Cognitive Theory to Predicting Stage of Change Lorraine Silver Wallace, Ph.D.,* ,1 Janet Buckworth, Ph.D., FACSM,† Timothy E. Kirby, Ph.D.,† and W. Michael Sherman, Ph.D., FACSM† *Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, Texas 75799; and †School of Physical Activity and Educational Services, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 exercise behavior change as defined by the SCM. Exer- Background. Young adulthood is characterized by a cise self-efficacy was associated with exercise stage, steep decline in the level of physical activity, but few but the source of significant social support (family theory-based studies have examined characteristics versus friends) was different for males and females. associated with regular exercise in this population.  2000 American Health Foundation and Academic Press This study applied Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Key Words: physical activity; exercise; lifestyle; col- the Stages of Change Model (SCM) to determine per- lege students; Social Cognitive Theory; Stages of sonal, behavioral, and environmental characteristics Change Model associated with exercise behavior and intentions among undergraduate university students. Methods. A random sample of 937 undergraduate stu- INTRODUCTION dents (mean age 22.0  5.6 years; 84.7% ages 17–24 Despite the dissemination of health information pro- years) enrolled at a large Midwestern university com- moting the benefits of a physically active lifestyle the pleted a mailed questionnaire. Valid and reliable in- majority of Americans either engage in exercise behav- struments were used to measure personal, behavioral, ior on an infrequent basis or are completely sedentary and environmental variables based on the SCT that [1]. Physical activity participation decreases over the were hypothesized to influence stage of exercise behav- life span [2,3]. By age 21, only 42% of males and 30% ior change. Multivariate discriminant analysis was of females report participating in vigorous physical ac- used to determine associations among these variables tivity on a regular basis [3]. Participation decreases with stage of exercise behavior change. with increasing age, and only 10% of American adults Results. Exercise self-efficacy, physical activity his- as a whole engage in regular vigorous physical activity tory, and nonexercise estimation of aerobic capacity and most are sedentary or sporadically active [3]. Only were significant predictors of the stage of exercise be- havior change for both males and females. Among fe- 22% of American adults participate in regular moderate males, exercise self-efficacy (P  0.001) and family so- physical activity [4]. cial support (P  0.001) for physical activity were the The level of physical activity can be modified by be- best predictors of stage of exercise behavior change. havioral interventions. More effective interventions are Friend social support (P  0.001), physical activity his- needed because 50% of individuals who initiate an exer- tory (P  0.001), and exercise self-efficacy (P  0.001) cise program drop out within 6 months [5]. Variables were significant predictors of stage of exercise behav- that influence a physically active lifestyle and their ior change among males. relative importance to exercise adoption and mainte- Conclusions. The SCT framework predicted stage of nance are not fully understood [6]. Identification of such variables can help guide the development of more effec- tive interventions to increase both exercise adoption This study was funded by the School of Physical Activity and Educa- and adherence. tional Services, Ohio State University. The steepest decline in physical activity occurs dur- 1 To whom reprint requests should be addressed at the Department ing adolescence (ages 15–18) and young adulthood of Health and Kinesiology, University of Texas at Tyler, 3900 Univer- sity Blvd., Tyler, TX 75799. E-mail: lsilver@mail.uttyl.edu. (ages 20–25) [7]. Results from national health-related 494 0091-7435/00 $35.00 Copyright  2000 by American Health Foundation and Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.