Self-determination and stage of readiness to change physical activity behaviour in schizophrenia

Purpose: The present study examined whether reasons for physical activity, as formulated by the self-determination theory, differed across the stages identified by the transtheoretical model of behaviour change. Methods: A total of 129 persons with schizophrenia completed the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-2 and the Patient-centred Assessment and Counselling for Exercise questionnaire. Multivariate and discriminant analyses were applied to determine whether reasons for physical activity differed between men and women and across the stages of change. Results: Discriminant analyses indicated that persons with schizophrenia at the early stages of change are less autonomous in the regulation of their physical activity behaviour than those at the later stages. Multivariate analyses showed a difference in amotivation, external regulation, and autonomous regulation, but not introjected regulation across the different stages of change. Conclusions: Our results suggest that autonomous motivation may have an important role to play in the adoption and maintenance of health promoting behaviours in persons with schizophrenia