Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Opinions of ACSM professional members regarding selected ACSM health/fitness facility standards
Abstract
The ACSM's Health/Fitness Facility Standards and Guidelines book (1992), which requires health/fitness facilities to incorporate specific mandatory "standards" into their daily operations, has not received wide support among the fitness profession partially because published standards can increase liability exposure for fitness facilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to obtain opinions (professional and feasibility) from three groups of ACSM members (academicians, managers, and practitioners) regarding 49 selected standards addressing staffing/instruction/supervision, screening/testing/prescription, and equipment/facility issues. A survey, mailed to 1,035 ACSM members, used a six-point Likert scale to determine the level of agreement with each of the standards, as well as six general opinion statements regarding all of the standards. Respondents also provided written comments for each item. Descriptive statistics and 49 2 x 3 mixed design ANOVAs were used to analyze the data. The results (45 percent return) indicated that 80 percent or more of the respondents agreed with 41 of the 49 standards. However, for 32 of the standards, the professional opinion was significantly higher (p $<$ 0.001) than the feasibility opinion, indicating a greater level of theoretical agreement with the standards than agreement with their practicality or feasibility of implementation. Significant differences (p $<$ 0.001) among the three subgroups of ACSM members were found in only three standards, indicating that opinions largely did not vary among the groups. Qualitative responses for the specific standards generated three general themes. Subjects (a) disagreed with the term "must," (b) believed compliance with specific standards depends on size, purpose, and population served, and (c) believed that many terms in the book need clarification. The majority of respondents agreed with three of the general opinion statements: (a) the standards enhance credibility in the field (97 percent), (b) if implemented, the standards would decrease liability (89 percent), and (c) ACSM should publish "guidelines," not "standards" (68 percent). The revision of the ACSM text should include specific changes in the standards and consideration should be given to publishing only "guidelines" for health/fitness facilities.
Subject Area
Physical education|Health education|Law
Recommended Citation
Eickhoff-Shemek, JoAnn M, "Opinions of ACSM professional members regarding selected ACSM health/fitness facility standards" (1995). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9611049.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9611049