2.3.3. Intervention
SAID
The health coaching program was designed to facilitate and emphasize several aspects. The first coaching session focused on self-goal identification. At the first coaching session, the health coaches assisted the students to identify 2–3 areas within the topics of PA, nutrition, sleep, and social support that they would like to improve on. During each coaching meeting, student coaches evaluated their previous weekly goals and discussed their gains and challenges and areas that they would like to work on in the coming weeks. Second was “Peer support”. In each session, coaches facilitated the discussion using coaching techniques, including reflective listening, affirmation, motivational interviewing, etc. Lastly, the health coaching program facilitated and emphasized “Goal setting.” By the end of each session, coaches assisted student participants to come up with two SMART goals (i.e., specific, measurable, action-based, realistic, time-limited) that they felt ready to work on. Notably, participants were encouraged to set behavioral goals that they would like to work on. That said, no specific behavior goal was pre-set for participants. For instance, one participant may set a weekly physical activity goal of walking more, whereas another participant may work on doing more moderate-vigorous exercise. In the following week, students then conducted a self-evaluation on the completion rate from 0 percent to 100 percent on each of the wellness goals. Students in the control group received a wellness handbook that was created by the research team. This handbook provided information related to how to improve physical activity, nutrition, sleep, stress, and social support in the college setting. Students in the control group were asked to use this handbook as an information source if they would like to improve their health behavior practices.