Professor L.V. Shukshina¹
Associate Professor O.V. Mizonova²
Associate Professor N.N. Morozova²
PhD, Associate Professor M.M. Simonova^3
1Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow
²N.P. Ogarev Mordovia State University, Saransk
³Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow

Keywords: healthy lifestyle, mental health, mental health criterion, needs and motivations, emotional sphere, values.

Background. Both different research sector specialists and ordinary people with different interests, agendas and of different age groups give a growing priority to studies of healthy lifestyle as an integral component of modern life. Presently there are multiple definitions for healthy lifestyle. Generally it is referred to as the behavioural model that secures high activity, health and stamina and prevents somatic diseases and physical disorders, with the individual being fully aware of the high value of his/her health and taking determined actions to build up such a life model that implies no bad habits, habitual physical activity and due nutritional culture. We believe that a healthy lifestyle may be interpreted as composed of a few key components including physical, intellectual, spiritual and mental ones. The physical health component implies good wellbeing and fair age-specific physical fitness. The intellectual component means the individual agenda giving a high priority to own health, well-informed health-improvement initiatives and critical attitude to a variety of poorly grounded innovations and stereotypes. The spiritual component implies such an individual resource that facilitates certain life priorities and strategies being formed and actively pursued [4]. We also believe that it is the spiritual component composed of individual needs, motivations and values that may be viewed as the key one in the healthy lifestyle that determines the individual focus on the latter and largely shapes up the relevant personal agenda. This health component is closely connected with the individual mental health subject to studies by many modern researchers. Thus the researchers representing the humanistic field of modern psychology (A. Maslow, K. Rogers et al.) make a special emphasis on the following mental health components: self-acceptance and acceptance of other people; focus on reality; self-reliance and independence; focus on the problem rather than own self etc. Mental health is viewed as the key individual characteristic with a good balance of the personality qualities (Roberto Assagioli); as due interaction of the behavioural, reflexive and emotional aspects of personality (N.G. Garanyan, A.V. Petrovskiy); and as a due balance of the individual relationship with environment that implies a good behaviour control ability to successfully cope with life challenges. We believe that due mental health implies a variety of personality qualities including stress control ability; internal harmony; healthy and conscientious need for a spiritual progress; self-acceptance and acceptance other people; and responsibility for own self and other people. Therefore, a mentally healthy person may be defined as the individual having an internal pivot or “hard core”, a margin of safety, highly skilful in psychological defence and, hence, able to efficiently cope with life challenges; and effectively design and control his/her way of life [5].

Objective of the study was to analyse lifestyles of the student population and rate their attitudes to healthy lifestyle. 

Study results and discussion. Most of the modern students are negligent to healthy daily regimen, sports and other physical activity and seldom go outdoors for fresh-air activity. Statistically, sleep, food and physical activity take only 24-30%, 10-16% and 15-30% of their daytime, respectively. Negative effects of such a lifestyle on the individual health are usually long felt upon graduation from the university [3]. Our study data show that the academic physical education and other physical culture events largely fail to build up due healthy lifestyle in the modern student population. This failure may be attributed to the poor focus on the psychological component in the process design. It is also important to emphasize that success of a healthy lifestyle cultivation process largely depends on the values, motivations, needs and world outlook of the subjects.

Our study data showed that 62% of the students polled rated their lifestyles healthy enough since they reported going in for sports, abstaining from bad habits, diagnosed formally healthy and generally adhering to the recommended sleep-wake schedule. Most of the subjects agreed with the statement that it is the individual mental health that forms a basis for a healthy lifestyle, with mental health interpreted as tranquillity (33% of the sample); internal harmony (28%); self-acceptance and acceptance of other people (41%); and zero problems (30%). They also were found to believe that sports and physical training may contribute to their health protection and improvement efforts. Most of the students surveyed (69%) rated their own health as good; 23% as satisfactory; 5% as bad; and 3% as excellent. In their responses to the question on what keeps them away from sports, 50% of the students mentioned shortage of time; 17% said they are too busy in social networks; and 17% complained of having no money for sports. Some confessed being too lazy, having no willpower, seeing no sense in and “having no need” for sports. Furthermore, some students confessed having developed bad habits including addiction to alcohol, smoking and the internet. Large share of the students surveyed reported spending virtually all their leisure time in the internet environments and social networks. Only one of three students reported going in for some sport, with the sporting population dominated by the people trained since childhood with a special focus on competitive accomplishments. Most of the students surveyed believe that it makes no sense to start a sporting career in their age for the reason that the modern society gives a top priority to elite sports and competitive successes. Even though the university offers services of multiple sport groups, swimming pools, fitness centres, gyms and other sport facilities, most of the students reported being short of motivations, funds and time for sports. Many students cannot afford services of commercial sport groups, fitness centres, gyms and swimming pools; with 70% of the respondents saying they have no time; and 5% seeing no sense in sports. It should be noted that most of the sample, however, agreed with the statement that a healthy lifestyle facilitates success in virtually every field; hence, the students undoubtedly realise the high value of their health. However, many respondents stated that their attitude to healthy lifestyle has not changed for the academic study period in fact.

To rate the initial level of the healthy lifestyle related agenda, we applied the A.G. Nosov’s Questionnaire “Healthy Lifestyle Components Rating in Students” with a special emphasis on the data on the values and senses related component (i.e. the conscientious need for healthy lifestyle); informational component (healthy lifestyle knowledge) and individual activity related component (including health protection knowledge and skills) [2]. The survey data showed domination of the objective-active and average healthy lifestyle agenda in the students that means that most of the students know well that active efforts need to be taken to protect and improve their health, albeit actually take little if any actions for their own health. Thus 82% of the sample gave a positive response to the question if it is wrong to prioritise the life values in the following way: family, money, health and interesting job. Furthermore, 41% of the respondents confessed that they never abide to the healthy lifestyle basics unless reminded and instructed to do so. The same was found by the analysis of responses to the informational set of questions.

The study data and analyses showed that due stimuli, needs and conscientious motivations for healthy lifestyle must be ranked among the key priorities in any initiative to protect young people’s health. Motivations may be interpreted as encouragements for actions driven by own individual will and agenda, conditional on the relevant individual needs being duly met. Unless a student has a real internal motivation for health, no talks on the ways to shape up the health agenda make sense in fact. Therefore, it is important for the students to be fully aware of the practical need for, values and benefits of the individual health agenda and healthy lifestyles [1]. The national government, social protection agencies and national education and health systems need to give top priority to efforts to develop a conscientious and determined health agenda in students to successfully cultivate healthy lifestyles in young people.

Conclusion. The academic policies to improve the students’ health standards need to give a due priority to cultivation of responsible attitudes to their health in students. In addition, a special emphasis must be made on the initiatives to build up due health agenda in students as an integral and important lifestyle component. The disease prevention initiatives based on well-developed academic health service system need to be top-priority. Highly important are also the relevant public elucidation projects to cultivate the internal conscientious attitude to their health and health control in students based on due knowledge of the healthy lifestyle related matters. Due priority must be also given to the theoretical knowledge being supported by practical skills development and application initiatives.

References

1. Vasyakin B.S. Sistema upravleniya innovatsiyami v vysshem uchebnom zavedenii. Atoref. dis. kand. ekon. nauk [System of innovation management in higher education institution. PhD diss. abstract]. Rus. State Academy of Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation publ., Moscow, 2007.
2. Nosov A.G. Fundamentalnye issledovaniya [Fundamental research]. 2014, no. 12 (vol. 12), pp. 2644-2648.
3. Shibkova V.P., Simonov S.M. Zdorovye i zdorovy obraz zhizni sovremennoy studencheskoy molodezhi [Health and healthy lifestyle of modern students]. Vestnik TGU, 2009, vol. 14, no. 1.
4. Shukshina L.V., Mizonova O.V. Problemy otechestvennoy dukhovnosti i dukhovnogo poiska v molodezhnoy srede [Problems of national spirituality and spiritual search in youth environment]. V mire nauchnykh otkrytiy, 2015, no. 1-3, pp. 1491-1502.
5. Khukhlaeva O.V. Tropinka k svoemu ya: Programma psikhologicheskogo zdorovya u mladshikh shkolnikov [Path to individual self: Mental health program for primary pupils]. Moscow: Genezis publ., 2001, 280 p. (Series "School Psychology lessons").

Corresponding author: Liudmila.shukshina@yandex.ru

Abstract     

The study analyses healthy lifestyle as a phenomenon giving a high priority to individual mental health as the key component of healthy lifestyle, and describes the key constituents of mental health including physical, intellectual, spiritual and psychological ones. The authors come to conclusions that the psychological component is a key factor in the healthy lifestyle building process. This component is determined by certain individual needs, motivations and values system that are critical for individual predisposition to the healthy lifestyle building process. A survey of the student population was performed under the study to rate attitudes to their health. The survey data showed that health is considered one of the fundamental qualities of an individual life and highly valued in the context of the self-assessment of own condition and resource critical for full-blooded and successful life based on individual values system, goals and preferences that inspire life with due senses.