Hypotheses derived from the Developmental Model of Health and Nursing were tested by examining relationships among mothers’ resilience (health potential), family health-promoting activity (health work), and mothers’ health-promoting lifestyle practices (competence in health behavior) in 67 families with preschool children. Mothers completed a mailed survey containing self-report measures of the study variables and a demographic form. As hypothesized, both mother’s resilience and family health work were positively related to mother’s health-promoting lifestyle practices. Mother’s resilience was also associated with health work. Mother’s resilience and health work were found to predict 41% of the variance in mother’s health-promoting lifestyle practices, after controlling for the effects of family income. Mother’s resilience and health work were most strongly related to different, but complementary, aspects of mother’s health-promoting lifestyle practices. Implication for nursing practice and future research are identified.
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