Positive youth development : interactions between healthy lifestyle behaviours and psychosocial variables

Copyright © 2006 - 2018 The Canadian Center of Science and Education. All Rights Reserved .Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).The Positive Youth Development - PYD concept emphasised the importance of strengthening developmental assets in youth’s networks and contexts. This paper examines the correlation between PYD, healthy lifestyle behaviours and psychosocial variables (self-regulation, resilience, and anxiety); and the impact of PYD and psychosocial variables on healthy lifestyle behaviours. 2700 youths (73.3% girls; mean age 21.3±2.79 years) were included. Results showed that all variables mostly had significantly correlational associations. Specifically, the linear regression model evidenced that the promotion of PYD and self-regulation, along with the reduction of anxiety can be relevant for improving healthy lifestyle behaviours. Such results suggest a dynamic interdependence between all the present variables, reinforcing the need to study positive indicators for youth development. Having more knowledge in this area can help health professionals, educators, and policy-makers, in order to better plan interventions/policies and to improve an integral healthy perspective for youths, based on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work.