Evaluating behavior change factors over time for a simple vs. complex health behavior.

Background: Researchers are working to identify dynamic factors involved in the shift from behavioral initiation to maintenance-factors which may depend on behavioral complexity. We test hypotheses regarding changes in factors involved in behavioral initiation and maintenance and their relationships to behavioral frequency over time, for a simple (taking a supplement) vs. complex (exercise) behavior.

Methods: Data are secondary analyses from a larger RCT, in which young adult women, new to both behaviors, were randomly assigned to take daily calcium ( = 161) or to go for a daily, brisk walk ( = 171), for 4-weeks. Factors (intentions, self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, self-identity, habit strength) were measured weekly. Multi-level modeling evaluated their change over time. Bivariate correlations and multiple regression determined the relationships between factors and the subsequent-week behavioral frequency (self-report and objective).

Finding: Results were partly in-line with expectations, in that individuals' intentions and self-efficacy predicted initial behavioral engagement for both behaviors, and habit strength increased for both behaviors, becoming a significant predictor of behavioral frequency in later weeks of the study in some analyses. However, results depended on whether the outcome was self-reported or objectively measured and whether analyses were bivariate or multivariate (regression).

Discussion: The factors theorized to play a role in behavioral maintenance (intrinsic motivation, self-identity, and habit strength) started to develop, but only habit strength predicted behavioral frequency by study-end, for both behaviors. Differences in initiation and maintenance between behaviors of differing complexity may not be as stark as theorized, but longer follow-up times are required to evaluate maintenance factors.