A life course study of the effects of experienced life events on the onset and continuity of preventive healthcare behaviors.

This study offers the life course paradigm as a viable framework for studying the onset and continuity of three preventive healthcare behaviors at different stages in life. The results reveal that life events experienced earlier in life significantly affect the likelihood of the onset of some certain behaviors and have a different impact on the risk of discontinuation of such a behavior at different life stages. The findings also support the notion that the longer people engage in a certain preventive healthcare activity, the more likely they are to continue that activity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Life Course Perspectives on the Onset and Continuity of Preventive Healthcare Behaviors.

Preventive healthcare is considered a cornerstone of good health and well-being that can play a major role in reducing a country's healthcare costs and improving both the length and quality of people's lives. Previous research on preventive healthcare behaviors has been predominantly cross-sectional, ignoring the dynamic nature of people's health behaviors over a full life span. As a result, the reasons for the development, stability, and changes of individuals' preventive healthcare behaviors over time remain relatively unknown. Our article contends that to understand the degree of people's engagement in preventive healthcare behaviors, we must understand the origins, continuity, and discontinuity of such behaviors. We offer the life course paradigm as a viable framework for studying preventive healthcare behaviors at different stages in life. Based on theory and previous research, our article proposes that the onset, continuity, and changes in preventive healthcare behaviors are the outcomes of physical, social, and emotional demands triggered by life events that require adaptation through the mechanisms of socialization, stress and coping, and human development. These mechanisms are the underlying change processes of the three main life course theoretical perspectives-normative, stress, and human capital, respectively. Our paper discusses implications of adopting the life course approach for theory and practice, and offers a research agenda in the form of general propositions and conceptual directions for future research.

Materialism and life satisfaction: the role of religion.

This study examines the role of religion and religiosity in the relationship between materialism and life satisfaction. The findings suggests that religion may be a key factor in understanding differences in findings of previous studies regarding the inverserelationship found in the vast majority of previous studies. Based on a large-scale study in Malaysia­a country comprised of several religious subcultures (mainly Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus), the findings suggest that the influence of religiosity on materialism and life satisfaction is stronger among Malays than among Chinese and Indians, and life satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between religiosity and materialism. The paper discusses implications for theory development and further research.

Materialism and Life Satisfaction: The Role of Religion.

This study examines the role of religion and religiosity in the relationship between materialism and life satisfaction. The findings suggests that religion may be a key factor in understanding differences in findings of previous studies regarding the inverse relationship found in the vast majority of previous studies. Based on a large-scale study in Malaysia-a country comprised of several religious subcultures (mainly Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus), the findings suggest that the influence of religiosity on materialism and life satisfaction is stronger among Malays than among Chinese and Indians, and life satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between religiosity and materialism. The paper discusses implications for theory development and further research.