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Health Behavior and the Human Life Cycle

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Handbook of Health Behavior Research III

Abstract

Research in health behavior has shown considerable growth since the mid-1970s. During this growth, researchers and practitioners have focused primarily on health practices and interventions within age-specific groups and special “at-risk” populations. Researchers and practitioners have addressed health behaviors associated with maternal and child health (Boyd & Windsor, 1993), adolescent populations (Cowell & Montgomery, 1993), young adult and college-age populations (Gottlieb & Baker, 1986) and middle-age, and more recently, older adults in community settings (Gliden, Hendryx, Casia, & Singh, 1989) and nursing homes (Fiatarone et al., 1990). Even with this emphasis on special populations, noted Gottlieb and Green (1987), much of the research to date has concentrated primarily on younger, white, motivated, middle-class populations.

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Prohaska, T.R., Clark, M.A. (1997). Health Behavior and the Human Life Cycle. In: Gochman, D.S. (eds) Handbook of Health Behavior Research III. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1757-7_2

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