The findings that an incident itself (or self-regulation following it) has an effect on behavior change (Morgan et al., 2008) underscore the need to examine students’ readiness to change or motivation to change following the incident as a potential explanation for differential intervention efficacy across different individuals. The existing literature is inconclusive regarding whether readiness to change moderates the efficacy of PFIs. While Carey, Henson, Carey, and Maisto (2007) did not find a significant moderation effect between BMI and readiness to change among volunteer students, there is limited evidence that it does. For example, Fromme and Corbin (2004) found that, at baseline, mandated participants reported higher levels of readiness to change compared to volunteer students. When they tested readiness to change as a potential moderator of intervention efficacy, results showed a trend toward greater reductions in heavy alcohol consumption following the intervention, compared to the control condition, among the volunteer but not mandated students with greater readiness to change at baseline.
