Self-regulation for the promotion of student health. Traffic lights: the development of a tailored web-based instrument providing immediate personalized feedback

Figures & data

Figure 1. Structural paths and standardized regression coefficients (MLE) and explained variance for the 'self-regulation for the promotion of student health' model. The control variables are not shown for reasons of simplicity.

Table 1. Cronbach's alphas for the reliabilities of the included measurement scales and example items.

Concept	Used scale	Author(s)	Example item	Number of items	Alpha Sample 1	Alpha Sample 2	Alpha Sample 3
Health
General health	SF-36 (subscale)	Aaronson et al. (1998)	My health is excellent.	4	.65	.72	.78
Vitality	SF-36 (subscale)	Aaronson et al. (1998)	How much of the time during the past 4 weeks … Did you have a lot or energy?	4	.84	.74	.82
Mental health
Depression	K-6	Kessler et al. (2002)	During the last 30 days, about how often did … you feel hopeless?	6	.87	.86	.87
Anxiety	EK10	Donker et al. (2010)	In the past month, have you felt worried, nervous, tense or anxious for the greater part of the time?	4/5	.61^a	.78	.75
Health (risk) behavior
Smoking	cds-5	Etter, LeHouezec, and Perneger (2003)	After a few hours without smoking, I feel an irresistible urge to smoke.	5	.86	.87	.84
Alcohol (ab)use	AUDIT	Saunders, Aasland, Babor, de la Fuente and Grant (1993)	How often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of drinking?	10	.75	.78	.80
Drug (ab)use	DAST-10	Skinner (1982); Yudko, Lozhkina, and Fouts (2007)	Are you always able to stop using drugs when you want to?	10	.55^a	.77	.76
Internet addiction	CIUS-A	Van den Eijnden, Meerkerk, Vermulst, Spijkerman and Engels (2008)	Do you neglect your study tasks because you prefer to go on the Internet?	12	–	.92	.87
Buying addiction	Buying addiction	Faber and O'Guinn (1992)	I bought something in order to make myself feel better.	7	–	.71	.77
Student health (risk) behavior (general)	Student health (risk) behavior	Van der Heijde et al. (2011)	I exercise sufficiently.	12/17^b	.66^c	.71	.73
Student life quality
Satisfaction with study	Satisfaction with study	Van der Heijde et al. (2011)	My learning experiences at the university make me feel:	6	.86	.83	.85
Quality of student life	Quality of student life	Van der Heijde, Vonk, and Meijman (2011)	My housing situation makes me feel:	10/11^b	.84	.75	.74
Self-regulation
Peer pressure lifestyle self-efficacy	Peer pressure lifestyle self-efficacy	Van der Heijde et al. (2011)	I can withstand the pressure from peers to drink alcohol.	6	.74	.79	.80
Problem-solving strategies	Collective coping	Kuo, Roysircar, and Newby-Clark (2006)	I talk with and get help from one or both of my parents.	8	.72	.62	.74
Problem-solving strategies	Avoidance coping	Kuo et al. (2006)	I keep my emotions to myself and do not show them.	7	.68	.65	.69
Problem-solving strategies	Engagement coping	Kuo et al. (2006)	I think about the situation carefully and think of options before I decide what to do.	5	.70	.73	.77
Motivation and goals (study)	M&G study	Van der Heijde et al. (2011)	I know exactly what I want to achieve.	11	.84	.78	.83
(social)	M&G social	Van der Heijde et al. (2011)	My goals are realistic.	11	.86	.84	.86
(financial/material)	M&G financial/material	Van der Heijde et al. (2011)	I keep postponing working on my goals.	11	.81	.86	.84
(work and career)	M&G work and career	Van der Heijde et al. (2011)	I am confident that I can achieve this.	11	.86	.86	.86
(health)	M&G health	Van der Heijde et al. (2011)	I invested a lot (time, efforts) to achieve my goals.	11	.84	.86	.86

^aYes/no answers in Sample 1 was later changed to a 5-point Likert scale.

^bThere was a change in the number of items due to new insights (stemming from statistical analyses and qualitative information from students).

^cAlteration from a 4-point to a 5-point Likert scale.

Table 2. Means, standard deviations, reliability coefficients (Cronbach's alphas on the diagonal), and correlations between the model variables (Sample 2; N = 267).

	Mean	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Age	20.6	5.21
Peer pressure lifestyle self-efficacy	8.9	1.18	.08	(.79)
Health
General health	71.1	21.16	−.04	.19	(.72)
Vitality	58.8	18.62	.10	.10	.41	(.74)
Depression	11.6	4.34	−.10	−.15	−.38	−.65	(.86)
Anxiety	5.6	2.47	−.09	−.22	−.32	−.43	.67	(.78)
Student health (risk) behavior
Health behavior (pos)	3.1	.60	.05	.20	.27	.42	−.37	−.23	(.77)
Health risk behavior (neg)	4.0	.49	.16	.46	.19	.03	−.09	−.19	.17	(.62)
Student life quality
Satisfaction with study	3.6	.61	−.01	.09	.15	.24	−.31	−.25	.26	.14	(.83)
Quality of student life	3.9	.50	−.08	.23	.39	.44	−.58	−.41	.37	.14	.32	(.75)
Self-regulation
Collective coping	3.8	.59	.00	−.04	.03	.18	−.10	−.01	.29	.02	.05	.21	(.62)
Avoidance coping	3.9	.70	.06	.26	.10	.09	−.09	−.01	.16	.23	.07	.16	.04	(.65)
Engagement coping	4.3	.57	.09	.23	.21	.33	−.39	−.24	.33	.22	.17	.41	.25	.10	(.73)
Motivation and goals study	3.6	.50	.11	.17	.13	.16	−.18	−.16	.22	.23	.31	.26	.18	−.01	.23	(.78)
Motivation and goals social	3.7	.62	−.07	.13	.13	.11	−.21	−.09	.25	.08	.07	.39	.20	.10	.24	.32	(.84)
Motivation and goals financial/material	3.4	.68	.10	.17	.13	.09	−.07	−.03	.06	.09	−.02	.25	.14	−.04	.24	.38	.37	(.86)
Motivation and goals, work and career	3.4	.67	.01	.22	.15	.14	−.15	−.08	.18	.18	.11	.24	.08	.13	.32	.40	.25	.46	(.86)
Motivation and goals health	3.4	.70	.15	.15	.18	.25	−.24	−.13	.44	.15	.12	.29	.29	.17	.29	.17	.29	.33	.35	(.86)

Note: Correlations between 06 ≤ r ≤ .08 are significant at p < .05 while correlations r ≥ .09 are significant at p < .01.

Table 3. Goodness-of-fit indices for proposed models.

Model	χ^2	df	IFI	TLI	CFI	RMSEA
(1)	278.34	134	.89	.85	.88	.06
Null	1396.70	171	.00	.00	.00	.16
(2)	272.07	136	.89	.86	.89	.06
Null	1396.70	171	.00	.00	.00	.16

Figure 2. Examples feedback.

Table 4. Cut-off scores based on Samples 1 and 2 and traffic lights for the web-based instrument.

Traffic lights	Lowest 20%	Highest 20%
Health
General health	56.3
Vitality	43.8
Depression		16
Anxiety		7
Health (risk) behavior
Smoking		15.5
Alcohol (ab)use		12
Drug (ab)use		1.54
Internet addiction		2.28
Buying addiction	.31
Student health (risk) behavior (general)	3.29
Satisfaction with study	3.17
Quality of student life	3.46
Self-regulation
Peer pressure lifestyle self-efficacy	8.17
Collective coping	3.2
Engagement coping	3.8
Avoidance coping R	1.8
Motivation and goals: study	2.6
Motivation and goals: social	2.8
Motivation and goals: financial	ns
Motivation and goals: career		3.5
Motivation and goals: health	2.6

Note: R reverse coded.

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