Relationship between Stage of Change for Three Health Behaviors and Perceived Stress in Chinese Adults

Ke Deng¹, Akira Tsuda²

¹Institute of Comparative Studies of International Cultures and Societies, Kurume University, Kurume, Japan.
²Department of Psychology, Kurume University, Kurume, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/jss.2015.39037                

Abstract

We propose stress management behavior, exercise, and scheduled sleep to represent the general intention and actual practices aimed to relieve stress by the application of the transtheoretical model (TTM). Randomly selected Chinese adults aged 18 - 64 were tested through an internet survey. The stage distributions for the three health behaviors were different across the Chinese adults. Stress was significantly higher in action and maintenance stages than in precontemplation and contemplation stages across three health behaviors. Our findings have provided preliminary findings on the applicability of TTM on the three health behaviors in Chinese adults with evidence of concurrent criterion validity.

Keywords

Stage of Change, Exercise, Sleep Behavior, Stress Management

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	McEwen, B.S. (2007) Physiology and Neurobiology of Stress and Adaptation: Central Role of the Brain. Physiological Reviews, 87, 873-904. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2006
[2]	Horiuchi, S., Tsuda, A., Prochaska, J.M., Kobayashi, H. and Mihara, K. (2012) Relationships between Stages and Processes of Change for Effective Stress Management in Japanese College Students. Psychology, 3, 494-499. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2012.36070
[3]	Rebar, A.L., Duncan, M.J., Short, C. and Vandelanote, C. (2014) Differences in Health-Related Quality of Life between Three clusters of Physical Activity, Sitting Time, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress. BMC public Health, 14, 1088. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1088
[4]	Wolkow, A., Ferguson, S., Aisbett B., and Main L. (2015) Effects of Work-Related Sleep Restriction on Acute Physiological and Psychological Stress Responses and Their Interactions: A Review among Emergency Service Personnel. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 28.
[5]	Deng, K., Tsuda, A., Horiuchi, S. and Matsuda, T. (2013) Relationships between Stages and Processes of Change for Effective Stress Management in Chinese College Students. Stress Science Research, 28, 74-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.5058/stresskagakukenkyu.28.74
[6]	Conner, M and Norman, P. (1996) The Role of Social Cognition in Health Behaviors. In: Conner, M. and Norman, P., Eds., Predicting Health Behavior, Open University Press, Buckingham, 1-21.
[7]	Ajzen, I. (1991) The Theory of Planned Behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179- 211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
[8]	Prochaska, J.O. and DiClemente, C.C. (1983) Stages and Processes of Self-Change of Smoking: Toward an Integrative Model of Change. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 390-395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.51.3.390
[9]	Si, Q. (2005) Study on Phase Change and Mental Decisive Factors of Sport Ex-ercise Behavior of College Students. China Sport Science, 25, 76-83.
[10]	Kim, E., Tsuda, A., Horiuchi, S., Park, Y.-S., Kim, U. and Hong, K.-S. (2009) The Relationship between Stages of Change for Stress Management and Depressive Symptoms in a Sample of Korean University Students. Kurume University Psychological Research, 8, 103-110.
[11]	Lam, T.H., Chan, B., Ho, S.Y. and Chan, W.M. (2004) Stage of Change for General Health Promotion Action and Health-Related Lifestyle Practices in Chinese Adults. Preventive Medicine, 38, 302-308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2003.10.005