Effect of certified personal trainer services on stage of exercise behavior and exercise mediators in female college students

The authors examined the effect of certified personal trainer services on exercise behavior by using the transtheoretical model of behavioral change. Participants: Female college students (n = 449) completed surveys during the first week (T1) and last week (T2) of the fall semester. Methods: Students receiving personal trainer services during the fall semester (experimental group, n = 3) were cross-matched with students who had not received services (control group, n = 3). Results: The control group demonstrated a stastically significant regression in stage of exercise change scores: the experimental group did not. The authors found the 2 groups to have a stastically significant difference in the pattern of exercise behavior change over the course of the semester with more active maintainers and progressors in the experimental group. Conclusions: Cognitive and behavioral processes of change, decisional balance, and scheduling self-efficacy significantly decreased in the control group, whereas congnitive processes of change, decisional balance, and scheduling self-efficacy remained statistically unchanged in the experimental group.