Winning Conditions for the Adoption and Maintenance of Long-Term Healthy Lifestyles According to Physical Activity Students

Laurence Couture-Wilhelmy, Philippe Chaubet and Tegwen Gadais
Additional contact information
Laurence Couture-Wilhelmy: Département des Sciences de l’activité Physique, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC H2X 1Y4, Canada
Philippe Chaubet: Département des Sciences de l’activité Physique, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC H2X 1Y4, Canada
Tegwen Gadais: Département des Sciences de l’activité Physique, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC H2X 1Y4, Canada

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-27

Abstract: The literature has not yet well documented the relative elements of the adoption of healthy lifestyle habits (HLHs) over the long term. More especially, researchers are calling to complete the corpus with qualitative or mixed estimates that would allow them to better explain the conditions necessary for the adoption or maintenance of HLHs over the long term. The present study seeks to understand the winning conditions for the adoption and maintenance of HLHs. Semi-structured group interviews were conducted with three groups of university students (two in Bachelor’s degree in physical education (PE) and one in Master’s degree in physical activity science), all in favor with HLHs. The results identify some dominant winning conditions in the adoption and maintenance of HLHs, such as the role of the family environment, the role of diversity and choice in physical activities during youth, the physical and social environment, autonomy and also mental health, which is closely linked with physical health. Results were modelled in the form of an ideal pathway, which traces the impact of winning conditions from childhood to adulthood. The originality of this study stands out, among other things, because of its innovative methodology; therefore, this study opens the door to future qualitative research in the field. Investigating pathways, considering the different phases of development of children and adolescents to identify factors of change and maintenance of HLHs now seems to be an interesting and necessary avenue for research in the field.

Keywords: healthy lifestyles; health education; physical activity; qualitative approach; long term; maintenance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11057/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11057/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11057-:d:661341

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().