ArticleAnnals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine2023
How Does Self-Control Promote Health Behaviors? A Multi-Behavior Test of Five Potential Pathways.
Article in Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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15 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nurse-Led Digital Intervention for Sodium Restriction in Chronic Kidney Disease: Mixed Methods Implementation Study.JMIR nursing · 2026Trial
- Can music activity training improve self-control among preschool children? Evidence from an 8-week intervention experiment.BMC psychology · 2026Trial
- Traditional Mediterranean Lifestyle: From a Heritage to a Legacy as an Inspirational Roadmap to a New Era.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Review
- Adaptive habits: understanding executive function and its development.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2026Review
- Social Marketing for Health Equity: Promoting Preventive Health Behavior Among Women in Rural Communities.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Bridging the intention-behavior gap in physical activity among pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus: a qualitative study of self-control strategy use and dynamics.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Article
- Psychological Components of Disease Stigma Across Illnesses: Associations with Cultural and Personal Factors.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Relative associations of physical activity, social support, and self-control with resilience among vocational college students: a multisite cross-sectional study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Monitoring students' well-being through journal analysis-study protocol of an explorative approach using natural language processing on typed and transcribed entries to monitor and generate personalized feedback.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- Latent class profiles of health-risk behaviors and the protective roles of psychological resilience and self-control in Chinese adolescents.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Associations of self-control and dietary restraint with the home food environment during pregnancy and postpartum.Appetite · 2026Article
- Linking Autonomy-Supportive Parenting with Their Children's Autonomous Motivation Toward, and Participation in, Physical Activity.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- The functional connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex underlying the association between self-control and delay discounting.Brain structure & function · 2025Article
- Evidence inhibitory self-control moderates effects of habit on complex but not simple health behaviors.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2025Article
- Progress on theory of planned behavior research: advances in research synthesis and agenda for future research.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSelf-control is generally defined as the capacity to override impulses and is a robust predictor of health behaviors. This paper integrates trait, reasoned action, and habit approaches to develop and test a mechanistic account of how self-control influences health actions. PURPOSE: We tested five potential pathways from self-control to behavior, termed the valuation, prioritization, habituation, translation, and inhibition routes.
methodsAt baseline, participants (N = 663 adults) completed survey measures of reasoned action approach variables and habits in relation to eight health behaviors and the Brief Self-Control Scale. Three months later, participants reported their behavior. Multi-level modeling was used to test pathways across behaviors.
resultsSupporting the valuation route, affective attitude, cognitive attitude, descriptive norms, and perceived behavioral control mediated the self-control-intention relation, and intentions and perceived behavioral control mediated the relationship between self-control and health behaviors. Self-control also predicted the priority accorded to different considerations during intention formation. Higher self-control was associated with stronger prediction by cognitive attitudes and perceived behavioral control and weaker prediction by habits and injunctive norms. Self-control predicted habit formation, and habits mediated the self-control-behavior relation. Finally, self-control was associated with the improved translation of intentions into health behaviors and with greater inhibition of affective and habitual influences. Findings for the different pathways were not moderated by whether approach (health-protective behaviors) or avoidance responses (health-risk behaviors) were at issue.
conclusionsThe present research offers new insights into why self-control promotes health behavior performance, and how deficits in self-control might be offset in future behavior-change interventions.
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