Strengthening willpower: Evaluating the effectiveness of an 'adherence efficacy' intervention

Adherence to certain positive activities (e.g., exercise routines) contributes greatly to one's quality and length of life. "Adherence efficacy," a term coined by the author, alludes to the confidence in one's ability to adhere to desired activities. This confidence is often a crucial link between wishing to adhere to activities and actually experiencing such adherence.;An intervention developed to enhance adherence efficacy based on the results of a preliminary study revealing five "cross-activity adherence-influencing factors" was designed by the author. The current study investigated the effectiveness of this intervention and whether increasing adherence efficacy positively affects actual self-reported persistence.;Twenty-seven participants were recruited from a local fitness center. Thirteen participants took part in the intervention. The remaining participants comprised the control group (n&barbelow; = 14). During the three weekly intervention meetings, a variety of methods of increasing adherence across many activities were discussed. "Weekly activities" based on the content of the intervention discussions and created by intervention participants were "assigned" to these participants each week. The General Adherence Efficacy Scale (GAES) was used to assess adherence efficacy levels in the study's participants. The construction of this scale is discussed.;It was hypothesized that (1) intervention group participants would report significantly greater increases in GAES scores after the adherence efficacy intervention than control group participants over the same interval of time and (2) higher intervention participant scores on certain of the "tips for getting the most of the intervention" (e.g., level of review of the intervention material) would be associated with both higher levels of GAES score increases at time 2 and higher increases in levels of participant-reported actual adherence to their target activities at time 2. Hypothesis 1 was not confirmed. Possible explanations for this result are discussed. Hypothesis 2 was confirmed. Intervention participants' self-reported frequency of performance of weekly activities was associated with increased GAES scores, and review of the intervention material in between intervention sessions was associated with increased intervention group persistence with their target activities. Implications, weaknesses of the current study, and suggestions for future research on adherence efficacy are discussed.