Healthy Lifestyle Self-Management Strategies of Sports School Students

Introduction: The current state of society and the pace of its development make high demands on human health. Formation of a healthy lifestyle of high school student athletes has its own peculiarities associated with their specific way of life and sport-related requirements.

Objectives: To identify strategies of healthy lifestyle self-management of sports school students and to develop recommendations for their improvement.

Materials and methods: The questionnaire-based survey was conducted in May 2024. The sample consisted of 202 students of sports schools of the city of Lipetsk. The sample was multistage, with quota sampling at the final stage. Along with the questionnaire-based survey, document analysis and frequency analysis were used.

Results: The data analysis showed that adequate understanding of a healthy lifestyle was formed only in 32.7 % of the sports school students. We found that some student athletes lacked knowledge, skills, and abilities to analyze important components of a healthy lifestyle: 40.1 %, 51.5 %, and 25.2 % of the students neglected the analysis of nutrition, sleep, and physical activity, respectively. Depending on the strategies of nutrition, physical activity, and active interaction with the coach, parents and friends, three types of self-management strategies rated as “excellent”, “good”, and “satisfactory” were identified, the indicators of which became the basis for the development of recommendations for their improvement. The highest self-assessment based on 12 indicators was given to the “excellent” management strategy, which was based primarily on a high level of support from the coach, family, and friends.

Conclusion: The study revealed the main structural elements of the healthy lifestyle self-management strategy of high school student athletes. For each component of the management strategy, the key parameters describing the existing “positive” and “negative” strategies were identified, on the basis of which recommendations of cognitive, organizational, managerial, and informational nature were developed to improve these self-management strategies.

1. Puzikov VV. [Formation of health values and healthy lifestyle in sports schools.] Published February 9, 2021. Accessed December 9, 2024. https://multiurok.ru/index.php/files/formirovanie-tsennostei-zdorovia-i-zdorovogo-obraz.html

2. Malakh ON, Glinka DD, Dudarev AN. Revisiting the formation of a healthy lifestyle culture of students-athlets. Vestnik Omskogo Gosudarstvennogo Pedagogicheskogo Universiteta. Gumanitarnye Issledovaniya. 2020;(1(26)):110113. (In Russ.) doi: 10.36809/2309-9380-2020-26-110113

3. Pronyushkina TG, Ukolova ON. The formation of schoolchildren of healthy lifestyle in the conditions of educational institution. Sovremennye Issledovaniya Sotsial’nykh Problem. 2018;9(1):186-199. (In Russ.) doi: 10.12731/2218-7405-2018-1-186-199

4. Kuntz B, Lampert T. Wie gesund leben Jugendliche in Deutschland? Gesundheitswesen. 2013;75(2):67-76. (In German.) doi: 10.1055/s-0032-1311620

5. Höpker T, Lampert T, Spallek J. Identifizierung und Charakterisierung von Gesundheitsverhaltenstypen bei 11-bis 17-Jährigen Jungen und Mädchen – Eine Clusteranalyse auf Basis der Daten des Kinder- und Jugendgesundheitssurveys (KiGGS). Gesundheitswesen. 2014;76(7):453-461. (In German.) doi: 10.1055/s-0034-1372619

6. Brooke HL, Corder K, Griffin SJ, van Sluijs EM. Physical activity maintenance in the transition to adolescence: A longitudinal study of the roles of sport and lifestyle activities in British youth. PLoS One. 2014;9(2):e89028. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089028

7. Neil-Sztramko SE, Caldwell H, Dobbins M. School-based physical activity programmes for promoting physical activity and fitness in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2021;9(9):CD007651. doi: 10.1002/14651858

8. Janeckova K, Hamrik Z, Matusova M, Badura P. “I am going out!” – lifestyle sports and physical activity in adolescents. BMC Public Health. 2021;21(1):1079. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-11066-3

9. Lu C, Stolk RP, Sauer PJ, Sijtsma A, Wiersma R, Huang G, Corpeleijn E. Factors of physical activity among Chinese children and adolescents: A systematic review. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2017;14(1):36. doi: 10.1186/s12966-017-0486-y

10. St-Onge MP. Preventing insufficient sleep in adolescents: One step in helping them achieve a healthy lifestyle? Sleep. 2022;45(5):zsac011. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsac011

11. Golubev VS, Berkovich MI. Healthy food: Perception, dynamics, popularization. Teoreticheskaya Ekonomika. 2020;(3(63)):98-104. (In Russ.)

12. Rikker AS, Andreenko TA. Healthy lifestyle and sleep. Nauka-2020. 2019;(8(33)):117-121. (In Russ.)

13. Shamkhalova ZAG, Golovina IYu. Physical activity as one of the most important components of a healthy lifestyle. Nauka-2020. 2022;(5(59)):145-150. (In Russ.)

14. Norin NЕ. [The main factors of a healthy lifestyle and their impact on a modern man.] Tendentsii Razvitiya Nauki i Obrazovaniya. 2019;(51-1):70-73. (In Russ.) doi: 10.18411/lj-06-2019-18

15. Lutskan IP, Savvina NV, Stepanova LA. Problems of medical support for children engaged in sport activity in Russia. Rossiyskiy Pediatricheskiy Zhurnal. 2012;(5):39-42. (In Russ.)

16. Ezhov AN, Goncharova NA, Kretinina GV. Human health and bad habits. Nauka i Obrazovanie. 2022;5(1):207. (In Russ.)

17. Ermakova EG. Formation of motivation for classes of physical culture and sports at students. Mezhdunarodnyy Zhurnal Gumanitarnykh i Estestvennykh Nauk. 2019;(12-1(39)):100-102. (In Russ.) doi: 10.24411/2500-1000-2019-11855

18. Bogdan IV, Volkova OA, Iglitsyna IS, Chistyakova DP. Introduction of gadgets in the monitoring system of population health indicators: Sociological research. Voprosy Upravleniya. 2022;(3(76)):33-45. (In Russ.) doi: 10.22394/2304-3369-2022-3-33-45

19. Terentyev AE, Filatova IA. [Significance of mass sports events in the formation of students’ value attitude to physical culture.] Teoriya i Praktika Fizicheskoy Kul’tury. 2010;(3):41-43. (In Russ.)

20. Bagnetova EA. [Healthy lifestyle of high school students.] Sovremennye Problemy Nauki i Obrazovaniya. 2006;(1):32-33. (In Russ.)

21. Zvereva EL, Chernikh YG. The model of physical culture of seniors as a factor of the forming a healthy way of life. Kul’tura Fizicheskaya i Zdorov’e. 2012;(3(39)):90-93. (In Russ.)

22. Kondratov AA, Zhukov RS. Pedagogical conditions for improving the health of senior pupils doing athletics in institutions of additional sport education. Vestnik Kemerovskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Seriya: Gumanitarnye i Obshchestvennye Nauki. 2019;3(3(11)):223230. (In Russ.) doi: 10.21603/2542-1840-2019-3-3-223-230

23. Meng Y, Manore MM, Schuna JM Jr, Patton-Lopez MM, Branscum A, Wong SS. Promoting healthy diet, physical activity, and life-skills in high school athletes: Results from the WAVE Ripples for Change childhood obesity prevention two-year intervention. Nutrients. 2018;10(7):947. doi: 10.3390/nu10070947

24. Craig CL, Tudor-Locke C, Cragg S, Cameron C. Process and treatment of pedometer data collection for youth: The Canadian Physical Activity Levels among Youth study. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010;42(3):430-435. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181b67544

25. Cavadini C, Decarli B, Grin J, Narring F, Michaud PA. Food habits and sport activity during adolescence: Differences between athletic and non-athletic teenagers in Switzerland. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2000;54(Suppl 1):S16-S20. doi: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600979

26. Parnell JA, Wiens KP, Erdman KA. Dietary intakes and supplement use in pre-adolescent and adolescent Canadian athletes. Nutrients. 2016;8(9):526. doi: 10.3390/nu8090526

27. Nascimento M, Silva D, Ribeiro S, Nunes M, Almeida M, Mendes-Netto R. Effect of a nutritional intervention in athlete’s body composition, eating behaviour and nutritional knowledge: A comparison between adults and adolescents. Nutrients. 2016;8(9):535. doi: 10.3390/nu8090535

28. Koçak Şahin E, Karayağız Muslu G. Examination of the relationship between health promotion behavior and game addiction in adolescents. Arch Psychiatr Nurs. 2024;53:42-50. doi: 10.1016/j.apnu.2024.09.007

29. Belikin AA, Savkina NV. A systematic approach to the formation of a healthy lifestyle and the relationship of the main elements. Nauka-2020. 2020;(5(41)):23-29. (In Russ.)