Public Health Reflection

PBH 602
DEAVANA WILLIAMS

SUNY BROCKPORT COLLEGE

PROFESSOR MOLLOY
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Intro

I have always believed that health is influence by the environment and people around

individuals. Many may think otherwise when it comes to health because at a young age,

we are taught a certain way to be healthy. We go to school to learn about health in health

Education as well as in physical education. We feel that starting with a foundation for

students to be healthy they will stay healthy, but it isn’t always the case due everyone’s

environment and influence around them. We would think that teaching a child at a young

age what is means to be healthy will have them stay healthy as adults, but it declines as

they get older due to many factors. These factors may include but not limited to parental

guidance, how they are as a person when it comes to finding out about their health so

going to the doctor.

Aspects of the module content reflective to public health history, philosophy, and values

most resonate.

The approach that best resonates with me is behavior change philosophy with a mixture

of decision-making philosophy. These two philosophes help me in my own personal life

as well as professional I based my decision off things that I have learned in my career as

well as while I grew up. I can see how I have grown with my own health as well as

influencing others. I say this to talk about adolescent who start off with bad habits as a

kid some examples might be not being active or eating healthy, they will make the same

decision as they get older. This is all solely based off what behavior they have seen as a

child and the decision made by them at a young age. Also, as a community we can make

these things achievable for the adolescents into young adulthood. According to “create

opportunities for physical activities that are enjoyable, that promote adolescents and
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young adults’ confidence in their ability to be physically active, and that involves friends,

peers, and parents.” (Shalala, 1999) This is showing how just a change in behavior and

bringing the environment around the adolescent can affect the outcome of their health

especially if it is fun for them. This approach is use in the Physical education setting

because we as educators want to make sure that students are confident in being physically

active.

Students will make the decision of eating unhealthy or not being active because this was

what they were taught not what they know. This also plays a part in environment as well

as the individuals around them. If an adolescent does not have a good role model to keep

up with healthy habits their health will decline. Stated “having parents who engage in

high levels of healthy behavior improves adolescence healthy behaviors by providing

stable monetary resources, modeling of positive behaviors, disapproval of unhealthy

behaviors and healthy promoting social networks.” (Frech, 2012) This statement talks

about how behavior improves which ties back into behavior change philosophy. This

could be something that the parent is working on with a doctor and wants to bring the

healthy behavior home to ensure that all goals that are set and their support system is

involved.

What you learned in this module confirm your prior beliefs or challenge them

The philosophes that confirmed my prior belief is the decision-making philosophy this

confirms everything that I have thought as an adolescent until now. The decision-

making philosophy states “a health educator specialist presents stimulated problems, case

studies or scenarios to students or clients. Each problem, case, or scenario requires

decisions to make and seeking a “best approach or answer”. By creating and analyzing
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potential solutions, the student develops skills needed to address many health-related

decisions they might face.” (Cottrell et al., 2018 p.86). By giving students scenarios of

different situations then have them figure out what is the best solution that will help them

to understand what it means to be healthy and why it is so important. This works well in

the health education and Physical education setting in the classroom because as a health

Educator /Physical educator there are many subjects that students are unaware of that are

taught to them like STDs as well as mental health issues. By educating scholars at a

young age, they will know what the best solution is to a problem they might face based

off what they learned in Health education/ Physical education. I Have had many

situations that I had to make decisions on based off scenarios I have heard or even faced

to make sure I choose the right decision for myself that will have the best outcome. Even

when it comes to working in a school setting, we as educator must make the decision of

how we want to approach a lesson and deliver the information to students. This is true for

everything we do in life no matter what the situation is.

Closure

I Truly believe that the more we teach adolescents about how health is important to them

in the long run the more they will appreciate what they learned when they are young

adults. The lesson that we teach as health and physical educators are based on the

philosophy of Symmetry because we teach students about how to keep their mind and

body healthy which will lead to their spiritual being healthy as well. The more we

continue to educate adolescents the more they will continue to make the correct decisions

as they get older and the less unhealthy, they will be as well.
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Work cited

Cottrell, R. R., Girvan, J. T., Seabert, D., Spear, C., & McKenzie, J. F. (2018). Principles and
foundations of Health Promotion and Education. Pearson.

Frech, A. (2012, June 1). Healthy behavior trajectories between adolescence and young
adulthood. Advances in life course research. Retrieved October 8, 2022, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3381431/

Shalala, D. E. (1999, November 17). Physical activity and health: A report of the surgeon
general. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved October 9, 2022, from
https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/adoles.htm