Healthy living character-building strategies: A systematic literature review

Abstract

The healthy living character needs to be intervened and habituated in elementary school students because it positively impacts children’s healthy food intake (fruits and vegetables) and several psychosocial factors (attitudes, knowledge, and self-efficacy). Improving the character of a healthy life needs to be supported by determining an accurate strategy. The study aimed to identify healthy living character-building strategies of elementary school students. This study used systematic review with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Searches for articles related to the topic used Open Knowledge Maps, Google Scholar and Litmaps and found 60 primary articles and supported by secondary sources such as books and proceedings. The review results in the descriptive analysis include geographical distribution and research design. The review results show that current research is still dominated by social cognitive theory and social learning theory, and treatment lengths are categorized into 40 weeks, six months and six years. The findings show that eight dominant strategies are used in shaping healthy living characters through healthy foods for the immune formation of elementary school students. The most effective strategies to facilitate healthy food for primary school students are the strategy of a mix of enhanced curriculum, cross-curriculum and experiential learning and other strategies such as parental involvement. This research provides insight into healthy living character-building strategies in elementary school students and can guide policymakers, principals, and teachers in the development of mixed strategies to improve children’s healthy living character.