Kaushal Navin, Nemati Donya, Jekauc Darko, Luszczynska Aleksandra, Hagger Martin S
Department of Health Sciences, School of Health & Human Sciences, Indiana University- Indianapolis, 901 W New York St, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA.
College of Nursing, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
J Behav Med. 2025 Feb;48(1):90-98. doi: 10.1007/s10865-024-00541-y. Epub 2024 Dec 19.
Habits are mental representations of associations between actions and contextual contingencies. Habit formation can be efficacious in promoting health behavior maintenance, including for highly complex behaviors such as physical activity. Changes in circumstances (e.g., job transitions, moving home) or the advent of disruptive events (e.g., work-related or personal responsibilities) can lead to habit discontinuity by eliminating the contextual contingencies associated with the behavior. Recently, habit theorists have distinguished between preparation or instigation and execution habits, with preparation or instigation habits proposed as central to the development and maintenance of complex habitual behaviors. Discontinuity for complex habitual behaviors may entail disruption of preparation, instigation, or execution habits making such behaviors highly vulnerable to disruption and discontinuity. We propose that the advent of events such as increased work demands or personal responsibilities (e.g., job demands or personal circumstances such as caregiving) and competing highly rewarding activities (e.g., technology-mediated screen activities such as using smartphone apps and games) have high potential to disrupt preparation and instigation habits for complex behaviors. We outline the mechanisms involved and propose several strategies that may be employed to minimize disruption and discontinuity of complex habitual behaviors using physical activity as an illustration. We identify reaffirming original goals, self-monitoring, and planning strategies as potentially efficacious means to minimize the potential for events and competing activities to disrupt physical activity preparation and instigation habits. We call for future research to investigate the efficacy of these strategies in managing disruptive events and promote maintenance of habitual physical activity habit maintenance.
习惯是行为与情境偶然性之间关联的心理表征。习惯形成在促进健康行为维持方面可能有效，包括对诸如体育活动等高度复杂的行为。环境变化（如工作变动、搬家）或干扰性事件的出现（如与工作相关的或个人责任）可能通过消除与行为相关的情境偶然性而导致习惯中断。最近，习惯理论家区分了准备或激发习惯与执行习惯，其中准备或激发习惯被认为是复杂习惯行为发展和维持的核心。复杂习惯行为的中断可能涉及准备、激发或执行习惯的破坏，使此类行为极易受到干扰和中断。我们提出，诸如工作需求增加或个人责任（如工作要求或诸如照顾他人等个人情况）以及竞争性高回报活动（如使用智能手机应用程序和游戏等技术介导的屏幕活动）等事件的出现，极有可能破坏复杂行为的准备和激发习惯。我们概述了其中涉及的机制，并提出了几种可能采用的策略，以使用体育活动作为例证来尽量减少复杂习惯行为的干扰和中断。我们确定重申原始目标、自我监测和规划策略是潜在有效的手段，可尽量减少事件和竞争性活动干扰体育活动准备和激发习惯的可能性。我们呼吁未来的研究调查这些策略在管理干扰性事件和促进习惯性体育活动习惯维持方面的效果。
