Guided goal setting: Effectiveness in a dietary and physical activity intervention with low-income adolescents

OBJECTIVE: Determining the effectiveness of the guided goal setting strategy on changing adolescents' dietary and physical activity self-efficacy and behaviors. DESIGN: Adolescents were individually assigned to treatment (intervention with guided goal setting) or control conditions (intervention without guided goal setting) with data collected before and after the education intervention. SETTING: Urban middle school in a low-income community in Central California. PARTICIPANTS: Ethnically diverse middle school students (n = 94, 55% male) who were participants of a USDA nutrition education program. INTERVENTION: Driven by the Social Cognitive Theory, the intervention targeted dietary and physical activity behaviors of adolescents. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Dietary self-efficacy and behavior; physical activity self-efficacy and behavior; goal effort and spontaneous goal setting. ANALYSIS: ANCOVA and path analysis were performed using the full sample and a sub-sample informed by Locke's recommendations (accounting for goal effort and spontaneous goal setting). RESULTS: No significant differences were found between groups using the full sample. Using the sub-sample, greater gains in dietary behavior (p < .05), physical activity behavior (p < .05), and physical activity self-efficacy (p < .05) were made by treatment participants compared to control participants. Change in physical activity behaviors was mediated by self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Accounting for goal effort and spontaneous goal setting, this study provides some evidence that the use of guided goal setting with adolescents may be a viable strategy to promote dietary and physical activity behavior change.