Purpose.

This study explored decisional balance, self-efficacy, and physical activity (PA) level in relation to stages of change (SoC) for PA among Nigerian vendors The study explored associations among decisional balance, self-efficacy, and PA level, and examined differences, by stage, in decisional balance, self-efficacy, and PA level.

Design.

Cross-sectional survey.

Setting.

Outdoor markets located in Eke Amobi, Nkwo, and Okpuno Egbu in Nnewi, southeastern Nigeria.

Subjects.

Participants were 499 market vendors (98 males and 401 females).

Measures.

Self-efficacy, perceived barrier and benefit, PA level, and SoC for PA.

Analysis.

Spearman rank-order and partial correlations; analysis of variance by gender with Bonferroni post hoc adjustment.

Results.

Self-efficacy (r = 069; p = 0.000), perceived benefit (r = .12; p = .007), and perceived barrier (r = –.11; p = .017) for PA were related to the SoC. Adjusting for age, gender, and marital status, only self-efficacy (r =.48; p = .000) remained correlated with the SoC. In males, significant differences in perceived barrier (p = .003) and benefit (p = .003) lay between stages of contemplation and preparation and between stages of precontemplation and contemplation for self-efficacy (p = .006). In females, there were significance differences in self-efficacy across stages of precontemplation and contemplation (p = .000) and preparation and action (p = .007).

Conclusion.

When designing PA interventions, age, gender, and marital status should be considered in explaining the relationships between outcome constructs of transtheoretical model (TTM) and SoC in vendors. It is also important to note that the stages at which outcome constructs of TTM change during PA interventions vary in males and females.