Associations Between Multiple Health‐Promoting Behaviors and Subjective Well‐Being in High School Age Youth

Abstract

BACKGROUND Conceptualizations of health have expanded to include indicators of adolescents' physical and mental wellness, rather than solely the absence of diseases or disorders. Although extensive research has identified links between mental and physical wellness, few studies have investigated the relationship between health promotion and happiness, particularly in adolescent populations who may be at particular risk for engaging in health‐compromising behaviors, such as alcohol consumption. METHODS This cross‐sectional study examined the relationship between 12 health‐promoting behaviors and subjective well‐being in a sample of 450 high school students from 2 states. Participants reported on their diet, physical activity, sleep hygiene habits, as well as abstinence from tobacco and alcohol products, and completed a multidimensional assessment of subjective well‐being. RESULTS Findings demonstrated that 7 of the 12 health‐promoting behaviors were significantly correlated with adolescents' subjective well‐being. A sizeable portion of the variance in adolescents' subjective well‐being (39.8%) was accounted for by the linear combination of the 12 health‐promoting behaviors of interest. Increased physical activity, sleep hygiene cognitive/emotional factors, and bedtime routine all were identified as unique predictors of subjective well‐being. CONCLUSIONS These findings bring attention to the salience of daily physical activity and sleep hygiene and their associations with adolescents' happiness.

The International Framework for School Health Promotion: Supporting Young People Through and After the COVID‐19 Pandemic*

“…In addition, sedentary behavior and screen‐time have increased since the start of the pandemic, with sleep quality and healthy nutritional intake also on the decline 17,20 . Given that these health outcomes have a bidirectional relationship with mental health, it is imperative for schools to explore ways their school programs can cultivate environments aiming to enhance health across multiple areas 48 . Recent recommendations published in The Lancet advocate for teachers to integrate movement opportunities and health‐related messages into daily routines and lessons 16 .…”

“…17,20 Given that these health outcomes have a bidirectional relationship with mental health, it is imperative for schools to explore ways their school programs can cultivate environments aiming to enhance health across multiple areas. 48 Recent recommendations published in The Lancet advocate for teachers to integrate movement opportunities and health-related messages into daily routines and lessons. 16 There is a critical need for multifaceted and holistic school health promotion programs and interventions that address multiple health outcomes such as physical activity, nutrition, sleep and mental health.…”

Testing subjective well-being predictors for adolescents

“…It is important to understand whether protective factors such as, resilience and health promotion behaviours, have contributed to well-being in adolescence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite, existing evidence that health promotion behaviours are positively related to subjective well-being of adolescents [9,10,11,12], here remains limited robust empirical evidence on how the relationship between health promotion behaviours and their subjective well-being mediated by resilience particularly in adolescent population. Accordingly, in the light of literature, it is significant to know what factors predict the subjective well-being of adolescence in a pandemic condition.…”

Exploring the Educational Potential of Online Platforms in Adolescent Physical and Mental Health Promotion

“…The physical and mental health education of college students has shown new changes in the digital era, mainly in the form of teaching and educational concepts, and the advantages of physical and mental health education of college students in the digital era are highlighted by the richness of the Internet resources, diversified methods, and accurate content [7]- [9]. Secondly, college students' physical and mental health education courses are rich and diversified, and college teachers add video, picture, text and other forms into the teaching to make the teaching methods more rich and diversified [10]- [12], which not only increases the attractiveness of the classroom, but also effectively improves the attention of the content of physical and mental health education, and lastly, the physical and mental health education platform has been well applied in the digital era. In the digital era, the physical and mental health education platform has been well applied, and college educators can assess the physical and mental health of college students through the online platform, interact with college students, and answer their questions and solve their problems in physical and mental health [13]- [15].…”