Exercise behavior of Malaysian secondary school students: A Transtheoretical Model approach

The objective of the present study was to assess the exercise behavior of Malaysian secondary school students using the transtheoretical model of change. A cross-sectional design was used. Respondents in this study (N=492) completed measures of stages of change, self-efficacy, decisional balance and processes of change and demographic data. Overall, only 22.8% (N=112) of the respondents indicated that they participated in physical activity on a regular basis (action/maintenance stage), while more than half (63.2%, N=311) of the respondents indicated that they sometimes (preparation stage) participated in physical activity. Another 14.1% (N=69) of the participants in this study indicated that they rarely or never been active in physical activity (precontemplation or contemplation). Malaysian students were found to be less active compared to students from other regions of the world. All of the constructs were significantly correlated with the stages of exercise change ( r = 0.334 for self-efficacy, 0.332 for behavioral processes, 0.298 for Pros and 0.257 for cognitive processes, all at p < 0.01) except for Cons (p <0.05). Self- efficacy construct has the strongest correlation with the stages of exercise change among all the constructs analysed. The costs to exercise (Cons) was the only construct to have a negative correlation with the stages of exercise. All the constructs except Cons were able to differentiate the students across the stages of exercise change, self-efficacy (F [2, 489] = 32.50, p <.001), Pros ( F [2, 489] = 23.76, p<.001), the Cognitive processes ( F [2, 489] = 17.51, p<.001) and the Behavioral processes ( F [2, 489] = 30.42, p<.001). The mean scores increased across stages and generally, this study supports the used of the Transtheoretical Model (stages of change) for assessing exercise behavior.