Assessment of coping with high-risk situations for exercise relapse among healthy women.
Twenty-nine healthy women's coping responses to situations interfering with planned exercise and subsequent patterns of relapse were evaluated. Participants adopted exercise without formal intervention; their activity was monitored prospectively for 14 weeks. Cardiovascular fitness was assessed at baseline, 3 months, and 9 months. At 1-week exercise activity lapse was experienced by 66% of participants, and 41% experienced a 3-week relapse episode. Relapsers initially reported significantly fewer behavioral and cognitive coping strategies in response to high-risk situations compared with nonrelapsers, controlling for baseline level of self-motivation. Coping responses also predicted short-term fitness. These data demonstrate the importance of coping or problem-solving ability in exercise and suggest that relapse may result from ineffective coping with exercise barriers.
Simkin
L R
LR
Department of Psychology, University of Mississippi.
Gross
A M
AM
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000523:psychology