Differences in progress through stages of change in exercise behavior between college students with and without peer mentors

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study:

This research was an exploratory study designed to examine the relationship between participants with a peer mentor versus those without a peer mentor and exercise behaviors. The application of the transtheoretical model (Prochaska, DiClemente, & Norcross, 1992) was put in place to assess the participants' progress across the stages of change as applied to exercise behavior. Participants were 138 college students who completed an eight-week intervention. The Health Behaviors Assessment (Newton, Kim, & Newton, 2006) was developed for this research and provided measures for both frequency of exercise behaviors and stage of change.

Findings and Conclusions:

It is well documented that younger people have become increasingly inactive in recent years (US Department of Health and Human Services, 1996) despite the health benefits resulting from regular exercise. Research has found support for matching intervention strategies to the stage of change for exercise behavior (Marcus, Banspach, Lefebvre, Rossi, Carlton, & Abrams, 1992). The main findings from this study are that participants assigned a peer mentor were able to increase overall exercise and stretching behaviors significantly more than participants without a peer mentor. However, no significant differences existed between the groups with respect to progress through the transtheoretical model's stages of change. Implications of this study and future directions for research are discussed.