Eine Untersuchung zur Validität des Transtheoretischen Modells im Bereich sportlicher Aktivität

Looking at current data regarding sportive activity of the german adult population, shows a discrepancy between the high acceptance of sport as a source of health and the percentage of people who actually are sportive. Aim of the study was to have a closer look at the motivation to be physically active among german employees. Therefore a sample of 251 employees included in a cross sectional study done in 2001 by the Institut für Medizinische Psychologie der Philipps-Universität Marburg filled out a questionnaire based on the TTM by Prochaska. The model is said to combine different psychological concepts on behaviour change by the use of the Stages of Change. The core constructs of the model are Stages and Strategies of Change, self-efficacy and decisional balance. The Stages represent the motivational and temporal structure of the model and the other constructs are arranged in a specific manner to them. Expectations regarding correlations among variables were tested in order to confirm the validity of the TTM for sportive activity. Further on going questions focused on well-being and self measured state of health and their possible correlations with the Stages of Change. Having a closer look at the Stages of Change it becomes obvious that the percentage of active people in the study is much larger than in the german adult population. The evaluation of data was received by varianz analytic methods and showed good results for criteria of quality. Also the calculations of factor analyses were in accordance with the postulated dimensions. Only the expectations regarding ten Strategies of Change for sportive activity were not met and were replaced by a seven factor solution. This indicates that for sportive activity the number of used Strategies is smaller than in other fields, e.g. smoking cessation. The results concerning the expectations of the TTM show that persons differ in the psychological core constructs depending on the Stage they are in. "Active" persons show in almost all variables significant different results than persons in non-behavioural orientated Stages which is in accordance with the expectations. The going on of the Strategies of Change along the five motivational Stages shows a global increase in their usage regardless of their being a cognitive-emotional or behavioural Strategy. This and the fact that the number of postulated Strategies could not be confirmed by factor analysis, brings up the question whether the two sub groups of Strategies make sense for sportive activity or not. Not in accordance with the expectations were the results of the analyses looking at the differences in well-being depending on the Stages. What could be proofed was the expectation that "active" persons think that they are in a better state of health and that those in pre-contemplation feel healthier than those in contemplation and preparation. These results demonstrate that the positive effects of sportive activity on the state of health are felt by physically active people and underline the theory of Basler et al. that people in second and third Stage are in a conflict, which has either direct impact on their health or at least they feel it has. The overall results are taken as a certification for the validity of the TTM for sportive activity. On the other hand it has also become clear that the model has to be individualized for every field of behaviour. For sportive activity the results of the study suggest a reduction of the Strategies of Change and questions the sense of their two sub groups. Another open point is dimension of the self-efficacy. Last but not least there remain proposals for further on going studies aiming at a more representative distribution of the people on the five Stages of Change and longitudinal sectional studies in stead of cross sectional studies.