To Go or Not to Go? Helen N. Watts

To Go or Not to Go?Helen N. Watts

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 Overview

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.

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) Physical Activity Well-Being

So how do we encourage physical activity? How does physical activity in a fitness club relate to well-being? Physical Activity Well-Being

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) ‘Paying not to go’

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 Just do it!

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) Social Cognition 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 Trait approach

Well-being theories: Hedonistic (Kahneman et al 1999) Desire-fulfilment/ eudaimonic (Waterman 1993) Objective list (what’s 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) Well-being?

Hedonistic Well-being Arousal (+) Displeasure Pleasure Arousal (-) (Adapted from Warr, 2002)

Certain factors in fitness club context pertinent to well-being: Social Physique Anxiety Involvement Agency commitment Gym member factors & well-being

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

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

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

Concern with negative evaluation of one’s 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” Social Physique Anxiety

Motivation for fitness club exercise (Havitz and Mannell, 2002; Iwasaki and Havitz, 2004; Kyle and Mowen, 2005) Involvement > commitment > behaviour Involvement + “the gym, I guess...it’s like it’s a part of me so to speak... It’s my thing... I get a real buzz from it” Involvement – “Well, it’s never something I enjoy- I’m normally there thinking ‘just half an hour to go’...it’s a means to an end really” Involvement

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 everyone’s 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 don’t really get that in a supermarket do you... Which is what my gym is like really, a supermarket.” Agency commitment

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? Conclusion

Thanks for listening- any questions? h.watts@worc.ac.uk

To Go or Not to Go? Helen N. Watts