Factors influencing the stages of exercise behavior change and exercise self-efficacy of student guardians : Focusing on the life stage in middle-age

Abstract

It is important that university students support exercise and sport activities actively from the viewpoint of the educational practice in university physical education. The purpose of this study was to identify health and socio-psychological factors influencing the stages of exercise behavior change and exercise self-efficacy in middle-age, and to examine hypothetical models of student guardians focusing on the middle-age stage of life. The stage of exercise behavior change was positioned as a dependent variable. Exercise self-efficacy was used as an intervening variable. Independent variables were consisted of health and socio-psychological factors. Health factors consisted of lifestyle-related diseases, health behavior and cognition of health status. Socio-psychological factors consisted of outcome expectations, human support, pocket money, free time, working hours, and enjoyment in exercise and sport in adulthood. Data were collected from a sample of 382 people in Osaka from December in 2011 to January in 2012 through a questionnaire. The number of valid responses was 366 （male=165, female=201; mean age=50.2 ± 3.7; range=40-59 years）. As a result, effective and new findings were obtained when university students support exercise and sport activities of their guardians. The main findings were as follows: 1）enjoyment in exercise and sport in adulthood was a very important variable for the stages of exercise behavior change and exercise self-efficacy in middle-age, 2）the stages of exercise behavior change were strongly affected by exercise self-efficacy in middle-age, 3）the stages of exercise behavior change were negatively influenced by working hours in male sample, and 4）human support was a very important variable for both the stage of exercise behavior change and exercise self-efficacy in female sample.