Ting, Liu Kien
(2018)
Structural relationship of transtheoretical model of behaviour changes, and amount of physical activity among undergraduate students in Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
Introduction: Physical activity is an important determinant of the physiological and
psychological health, protecting against several common diseases. Despite knowing the
benefit of engaging in physical activity (PA) regularly, the majority of the university
students were not physically active. A theoretically based tool was developed to
understand the psychological mechanism involving students’ PA behaviour. The
Transtheoretical Model (TTM) is an integrated model which aimed to understand
individual’s behavioural changes by experiencing a series of readiness for change.
Objectives: The study aimed to determine the validity of TTM constructs using a
confirmatory approach and examine structural relationship of the TTM and the amount
of PA among undergraduate’s students in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Method:
A cross-sectional study was carried out to test the students who took part in the cocurricular
programme. A total of 562 students participated in this study. By using
purposive sampling, students were informed that their participation is entirely
voluntarily, those who interested completed the self-administered questionnaires. The
TTM constructs consists of processes of change (PC), decisional balance (DB), selfefficacy
(SE) and stages of change (SOC) have been used widely to promote PA. The
data was analyzed using SPSS 24 for descriptive statistics and graphs. Mplus version-8
was used for confirmatory factor analysis as well as Structural Equation Modelling
(SEM) analysis for inferential statistics. Results: The majority of the students were
Malay (73.3%), female (79.0%) with the mean of 2.62 times exercise per week and
mean of 43.14 minutes exercise per session. In testing the measurement model of PC,
the 30 items final model fits the data well based on several fit indices (CFI=0.921,
SRMR= 0.066, RMSEA (90%CI) = 0.047 (0.043, 0.051), RMSEA p-value =0.888). For
the DB scale, the 10 items of final measurement model displayed excellent fit indices
(CFI=0.960, TLI=0.943, SRMR=0.055, RMSEA (90%CI) = 0.061 (0.047, 0.074),
RMSEA p-value = 0.096). For the SE scale, the 12 items of final measurement model
showed excellent fit indices (CFI = 0.924, SRMR= 0.064, RMSEA (90% CI) = 0.067
(0.057, 0.078), RMSEA p-value= 0.004). The final structural model fit the data well
based on several fit indices (CFI=0.951, SRMR= 0.034, RMSEA (90%CI) = 0.056
(0.038, 0.074), RMSEA p-value= 0.284). It also showed significant inter-relationship
among the TTM constructs and nine hypotheses were supported from the model.
However, among all the constructs examined, only PC would affect PA. Meanwhile, the
SOC, pros and SE had significant indirect relationship with PA. Conclusion: The
findings suggested that SOC in an individual would affect the SE level, the ability to
make a positive and negative decision and perform according to their behaviour. This
study confirmed that by making the correct decision and taking action accordingly, the
amount of PA would be increased.
Keywords: Decisional balance, processes of change, physical activity, confirmatory
factor analysis, structural equation modelling (SEM), self-efficacy, transtheoretical
model (TTM)
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