Regulation/non-regulation/dys-regulation of health behavior, psychological reactance, and health of university undergraduate students

Abstract

The Self-Regulation vs.External-Regulation Theory (2017) has postulated a continuum of regulation/non-regulation/dys-regulation that is present both in the individual and in the individ-ual’s context. This gives rise to a behavioral heuristic that can predict and explain other health-re-lated variables, such as psychological reactance and student health. On a voluntary basis, 269 uni-versity students completed validated questionnaires on variables of regulation, reactance and health. Using an ex post facto design, we performed correlational analysis and structural linear re-gression to build a structural equations model (SEM)with acceptable statistical values. The results showed various predicted relationships: self-regulation was associated with and positively pre-dicted self-regulated health behavior; external health-regulating contexts were associated with and positively predicted self-regulated health behavior; non-regulatory and dysregulatory contexts neg-atively predicted self-regulated health behavior and students’ health itself, as well as positively pre-dicting psychological reactance behavior. Implications are established for explaining variability in general and health-related self-regulation, as well as for intervening in these variables in health programs.