Date of Award

8-2000

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if participation in a college wellness course resulted in an improvement in knowledge, attitude, and behavior relating to physical activity, nutrition, and stress management.

Three hundred forty-eight students enrolled in the Wellness course at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, took The Wellness Knowledge. Attitude, and Behavior Instrument during the first class period (pretest) and last week (posttest) of the course.

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), with repeated measures on one factor, was conducted to determine whether there would be statistically significant differences between the pretest and posttest wellness knowledge, attitude, and behavior scores. Three-way ANOVAs were conducted to determine differences between female and male scores and between freshmen and upperclassmen scores.

Results showed that there was a significant improvement in the wellness knowledge scores for physical activity, nutrition, and stress management from pretest to posttest Upperclassmen mean scores were significantly higher than freshmen mean scores in the areas of nutrition and total wellness knowledge. Female mean scores were significantly higher than male mean scores in the area of wellness knowledge relating to stress management from pretest to posttest There was not a significant improvement in attitude relating to physical activity, nutrition, or stress management from pretest to posttest. However, female mean scores were significantly higher than male mean scores in the areas of nutrition and total wellness attitude. There was a significant improvement in reported behavior relating to physical activity and nutrition from pretest to posttest. In addition, male mean scores for behavior relating to physical activity were significantly higher than female mean scores, and female mean scores for behavior relating to nutrition were significantly higher than male mean scores. Explanations for the findings were suggested and further studies were recommended.

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