Every new year we set resolutions for our health. Some of us start working on it, but face barriers down the line. As a result, it gets more and more difficult to maintain the new changes we have made in our lives. If you’re wondering if there are any ways to sustain the behaviour change you have made, this article is for you!
Read More: Transtheoretical Model of Health Behaviour Change
Kwasnicka et al (2016) conducted a systematic review of literature studying the maintenance of health behaviour. They observed five overarching themes: maintenance motives, self-regulation, resources, habits and contextual influences.
1. Maintenance motives
For individuals to maintain a certain behavioural change, they need at least one motivator. It could be anything ranging from enjoying the behaviour, satisfaction with its outcomes, self-determination to engage in the behaviour or the congruence of the new behaviour with their beliefs and values. Typically, when individuals start to change their behaviour or engage in a new behaviour their motivation is at its highest and the costs of the behaviour are low. As motivation decreases and costs increase, individuals need to engage in self-regulation to ensure the maintenance of the new behaviour or behavioural change.
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2. Self-regulation
Our willpower is typically a limited resource. Therefore, it is important to constantly review our thoughts, actions, and emotions in our journey of implementing changes and achieving long-term goals. Individuals engage in this process through self-regulation. Initially, there is a higher need for self-regulation to maintain the behavioural change. However, as time progresses and with repetition, the new behaviour or the behavioural change manifests itself in an automatic and context-driven manner. For example, an individual would immediately recognize the environmental cue of having a water bottle next to their bed as a reminder to drink water after waking up. This would, however, happen after repeated efforts over time.
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3. Resources
The Behaviour Changes Wheel identifies the importance of motivation, capability and opportunity as necessary for any behaviour change. This indicates the necessity to focus on the availability of resources in addition to the individual’s motivation and ability to self-regulate. One study used the knowledge of the Behaviour Change Wheel to improve everyday person-centred conversations around physical activity across various healthcare settings. The study highlighted that educational resources would enhance interventions and conversations around physical activity for both healthcare professionals and patients.
Read More: Understanding the Crucial Bond Between Mental and Physical Health
This study also signifies educational and social support from healthcare professionals as an integral resource for maintaining behaviour change (Reid et al, 2022). Social support could be emotional, instrumental or informational. Emotional support can come in handy when you experience stress, burnout, loneliness or exhaustion at any point in the journey of behaviour change. In such situations, having someone to talk to about your experience is an instance of emotional support.
Instrumental support refers to tangible forms of support as helping you with your physical, financial and immediate needs. For example, if your mom helps you in weight loss maintenance by regulating your diet, it shows instrumental support. Individuals seek informational support in cases where they require guidance, mentoring, information, and advice. Your gym trainers and dieticians provide informational support.
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4. Habits
Receiving access to relevant resources and social support can facilitate habit formation. Habits are once again linked to the phenomenon where a certain behaviour is automatically displayed on exposure to external cues, after repeated occurrences over time. Habit formation is important to maintaining new behaviours or behaviour change because habits are likely to persist even after conscious motivation or interest is exhausted. Habits are also cognitively efficient, in that they help save time, mental effort and resources for other tasks, due to the automation of common actions. Gardner (2012) enlists the following steps for the formation of a new health habit:
- Set goals that you would like to achieve for your health.
- Every time you are at that place at the specified time, do the decided action.
- Choose a simple action that will get you towards your goal and can be done daily.
- Choose a time and place where you can do this action every day, and be consistent with it.
- With time, it will get easier, and within 10 weeks you will notice that you engage in the new behaviour automatically.
If you notice that your behaviour is now automatic, give yourself a pat on your shoulder, for you have made a healthy habit!
5. Contextual factors
Contextual factors and cues play an important role in facilitating behaviour change. These are necessary for habit formation. An effective strategy concerning contextual factors would be to build an action plan. Action plans with the cue components and the task components help strengthen the mental association between the task and the cue and increase the likelihood of the action being completed. Moreover, if the task and the cue are arranged in a sequence, the likelihood of the action being completed is increased further. For example, for someone taking medications, if their task is to take medications, and their cue is breakfast, they are more likely to take medications immediately after breakfast due to routine formation (Stawarz et al, 2020).
In conclusion, maintaining behaviour change or a new behaviour can be difficult, but it is not impossible. With proper planning and consideration of factors such as motivation, self-regulation, availability of resources, habit formation and contextual influences, you will be able to achieve your resolutions. However, it is advisable to also seek professional help from health psychologists to help you manoeuvre and progress through the process of change smoothly
References +
- Cherry, K. (2023, March 3). How social support contributes to psychological health.Verywellmind. https://www.verywellmind.com/social-support-for-psychological-health-4119970
- Gardner, B., Lally, P., & Wardle, J. (2012). Making health habitual: the psychology of ‘habit-formation’ and general practice. British Journal of General Practice, 62(605),664–666. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12x659466
- Kwaśnicka, D., Dombrowski, S. U., White, M., & Sniehotta, F. F. (2016). Theoretical explanations for maintenance of behaviour change: a systematic review of behaviour theories. Health Psychology Review, 10(3), 277–296.https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2016.1151372
- Michie, S., & West, R. (2021). Sustained behaviour change is key to preventing and tackling future pandemics. Nature Medicine, 27(5), 749–752. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01345-2
- Reid, H., Smith, R. S., Williamson, W., Baldock, J., Caterson, J., Kluzek, S., Jones, N., &Copeland, R. J. (2022). Use of the behaviour change wheel to improve everyday person-centred conversations on physical activity across healthcare. BMC Public Health, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14178-6
- Stawarz, K., Gardner, B., Cox, A. L., & Blandford, A. (2020). What influences the selection of contextual cues when starting a new routine behaviour? An exploratory study.BMC Psychology, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-020-0394-9
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