Training Adherence in Adolescent Competitive Swimmers: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior
in Journal of Sport and Exercise PsychologyClick name to view affiliation
This study examined the ability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to predict training adherence in a sample of adolescent competitive swimmers. Participants (N= 116, mean age = 14.8 years), who were drawn from 19 competitive swimming clubs from across Canada, completed measures relating to TPB before a major training cycle in their swim season. Results showed that training intention was significantly related to training behavior and that the direct measures of TPB (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) predicted a significant portion of the variance in the measure of training intention. Subsequently splitting the attitude measure into affective and instrumental components revealed that the instrumental portion of the attitudinal measure contributed significantly to predicting training intention, whereas the affective portion did not. These findings suggest that TPB offers insight into training behavior and that the two measures of evaluative attitude contribute differently to predicting training intention.
W. Kerry Mummery is with the School of Health and Human Performance at Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia 4702. Leonard M. Wankel is with the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
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