To Go or Not to Go Helen N. Watts

1
To Go or Not to Go?Helen N. Watts
2
Overview

• Introduction to industry context
• Brief overview of physical activity and
  well-being research
• Brief overview on physical activity adherence
  research
• Introduction to my research
• Well-being and physical activity in a fitness
  club Issues to consider

3
A healthy, wealthy industry

• Rapid growth over the last 15 years to 2.5bn.
• 2004, 4.2 million adults were members of private
  clubs in UK 9.1 of the adult population
  (Mintel, 2005).
• Increased governmental campaigning to increase
  well-being and reduce health problems associated
  with sedentary lifestyles (Robinson, 2004 UK
  Government, 1999).
• Popularity of collaborations between PMIs and
  operators highlight the perceived link between
  fitness club attendance and a healthy lifestyle.

4
Physical Activity Well-Being

• Regular exercise associated with well-being
  (North, et al. 1990), psychological benefits
  (Wankel, 1993 US Dept. of Health Human
  Services, 1996)
• Physical activity can help with clinical
  depression and anxiety disorders (Fox, 1999)
• Comprehensive review, across different countries
  and methods supporting link (Biddle, 2000)

5
Physical Activity Well-Being

• So how do we encourage physical activity?
• How does physical activity in a fitness club
  relate to well-being?

6
Paying not to go

• DellaVigna Malmendier, 2002 2006)- membership
  not directly linked with usage
• Analysis of membership database-29 go once or
  month or less!
• Initiating exercise regime (e.g. joining a gym)
  is not the same as maintaining it in terms of
  predictive theory (Marcus et al, 2000)
• 40-65 drop out exercise regime within 3-6 months
  (Buckworth Dishman, 2002)

7
Just do it!

• What drives people to go?
• Education is ineffective for sustained behaviour
  change (Dishman and Buckworth, 1996)
• Most offerings from Social Cognition theories
  (Annesi, 2004) and Trait theories

8
Social Cognition approach

• Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991
  Armitage, 2005 Hagger et al. 2002)
• - Spontaneous implementation intentions
  (Brickell et al 2006)
• - Perceived autonomy support (Chatzsarantis,
  2003)
• - Self- Determination Theory constructs (Deci
  Ryan, 1985 Harris, 2003)
• Social Cognition Theory (Bandura, 1986 Annesi,
  2004 Culos-Reed et al, 2001)
• Transtheoretical model (Prochaska DiClemente,
  1983 Marcus and Simkin, 1993)

9
Trait approach

• Five Factor trait model of personality (Saucier,
  1998)
• Systematic review (McEachan, 2004)
• Conscientiousness and extraversion lower-order
  Act trait shown to be predictive whilst
  controlling for social cognition factors

10
Well-being?

• Well-being theories
• Hedonistic (Kahneman et al 1999)
• Desire-fulfilment/ eudaimonic (Waterman 1993)
• Objective list (whats good for me e.g.)
• (Ryan and Deci, 2001 Parfit, 1984)
• Fitness clubs rely on eudaimonic and objective
  well-being for motivation (eg. Scorecards, weight
  assessments)

11
Hedonistic Well-being
Arousal ()
Displeasure
Pleasure
Arousal (-)
(Adapted from Warr, 2002)
12
Gym member factors well-being

• Certain factors in fitness club context pertinent
  to well-being
• Social Physique Anxiety
• Involvement
• Agency commitment

13
My research

• To research underlying factors of membership
  retention in the health and fitness industry
• To research attitudes and resistance towards
  retention marketing

14
My research
Two-stage, embedded mixed-method design
SEM of questionnaire results
2. Questionnaires a) Concurrent
b) Longitudinal)
Interpretation based on QUAN (qual) results
QUAN
qual
Interviews at the end of/ exit from longitudinal
study
1. Telephone interviews
15
Telephone interviews

• Literature review- a priori themes proposed
• Recorded, telephone
• Stratified random sampling (n 36, 50 response
  rate)
• Frozen (n6), Ex (n12), Current (12) (Usage,
  LOM), Non-users (n 6).
• Thematically analysed

16
Social Physique Anxiety

• Concern with negative evaluation of ones body
• Associated with low activity (Lantz et al. 1997)
  and excessive activity (Frederick and Morrison,
  1996)
• Sometimes you think that the skinny people in
  there are looking down their noses at you

17
Involvement

• Motivation for fitness club exercise (Havitz and
  Mannell, 2002 Iwasaki and Havitz, 2004 Kyle and
  Mowen, 2005)
• Involvement gt commitment gt behaviour
• Involvement
• the gym, I guess...its like its a part of me
  so to speak... Its my thing... I get a real buzz
  from it
• Involvement
• Well, its never something I enjoy- Im normally
  there thinking just half an hour to go...its a
  means to an end really

18
Agency commitment

• Psychological commitment to specific service
  provider, based on dependence, affective
  attachment, place identity, shared values and
  social bonds. (Kyle and Mowen, 2005)
• Affective attachment
• Not everyones like me , but I always feel like
  I want to belong somewhere. I like it when I go
  to my greengrocers and they talk to me... Whereas
  you dont really get that in a supermarket do
  you... Which is what my gym is like really, a
  supermarket.

19
Conclusion

• Most evidence suggests good link between physical
  activity and well-being
• Psychological dysfunction as a result of physical
  activity extremely rare (Fox, 1999)
• But, strength of link- dependent on activity
  context
• Should fitness club operators be focusing on
  hedonistic or eudaimonic well-being for retention?

20

• Thanks for listening- any questions?
• h.watts_at_worc.ac.uk