HW106 Unit 3 Ecological Model Application Paper Example

Beyond the Six O'Clock Class: A Unit 3 Ecological Model Paper on What a Fitness Instructor Could Do at Every Level

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

HW106: Health and Wellness Profession and Career Planning

Unit 3 Ecological Model Application Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The student, gym, school and neighborhood are composite; the frameworks and sources cited are real.

The Ecological Model

The model treats a habit like exercise as the product of nested influences, each wrapped around the last. McLeroy et al. (1988) named five rings: what is inside the person, the people around them, the places they work or study, how a neighborhood's organizations and streets fit together and the laws and rules over all of it. The model's lesson for practitioners is that changing one level while ignoring the others rarely lasts.

Brown et al. (2023), writing for health and fitness professionals, argue that the field has concentrated on the individual level, the client in front of the trainer, and that professionals can do more for the nation's health by working at the other levels too. They point to evidence that environments, programs and policies shape whether people are active, and they encourage fitness professionals to partner with schools, employers, health departments and planners.

My Neighborhood

The neighborhood around the community gym where I teach has hot summers, few shaded sidewalks, a park with a broken water fountain and an elementary school whose track is locked after hours. Many residents work two jobs, and many are Spanish-speaking families. Federal guidance sets a weekly target of 150 moderate-intensity minutes for grown-ups and a daily hour for kids (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). Few of my neighbors meet those targets, and the reasons sit at every level of the model.

Individual Level

What I do now. I teach classes, adjust exercises for injuries and answer questions after class.

One action. Add a five-minute goal-setting conversation for new members in their first week, asking what they want from exercise and what usually gets in the way. That moves my work from instruction toward coaching.

Interpersonal Level

The influence. Friends and family shape whether people come back. Several of my regulars started because a sister or coworker brought them.

One action. Start a "bring someone" class once a month in English and Spanish, where members invite a family member free, and pair new members with a regular for their first month.

Organizational Level

The influence. The gym's schedule fits people with standard hours; it has no classes before 6:00 a.m. or after 7:30 p.m., and no childcare.

One action. Propose to the gym's director an early-morning class for shift workers and a family class where children exercise alongside parents, solving the childcare problem in a different way.

My class is the one place in the neighborhood where I have complete control, and it is the place where I can change the least.

Community Level

The influence. The park is unpleasant in summer, and the only safe walking route after dark is the lit school track, which is locked.

One action. Partner with the parent group at the elementary school and the neighborhood association to run a free evening walking group at the park in the cooler months, and to ask the city parks department to repair the fountain and add shade. Brown et al. (2023) describe exactly this kind of partnership as a way fitness professionals can reach people who will never enter a gym.

Policy Level

The influence. Whether the school track can be opened depends on the district's facility-use policy and liability concerns.

One action. Join the parent group in asking the school district for an agreement that opens the track to the public on weekday evenings, an approach many districts use to share facilities with communities. I can contribute what a fitness professional knows: how many people would use it, at what times, and what supervision would make it safe.

Why the Levels Interact

The levels do not act separately. A new member's motivation, the individual level, fades quickly if the class time clashes with her shift, an organizational barrier. A walking group, a community action, works better when friends invite each other, an interpersonal effect. Opening the school track, a policy change, matters only if someone organizes people to use it. McLeroy et al. (1988) made this point when they first set out the model: programs that target one level while ignoring the others tend to produce short-lived change. For my work, it means the early-morning class, the bring-someone night and the park walking group should be planned together and promoted together, in both languages, so that each supports the others.

What I Can and Cannot Do

At the individual and interpersonal levels I can act on my own. At the organizational level I need the gym director's agreement. At the community and policy levels I would be one voice among many, and my credibility would depend on partnerships with people who already have standing, such as parents, the neighborhood association and public health staff. The model shows that the most important changes are at the levels where I have the least authority.

What This Means for My Career Choice

Working across the levels is not equally part of every wellness role. A health and wellness coach works mainly at the individual and interpersonal levels. A community health worker works across individual, interpersonal and community levels, connecting people to resources. A health education specialist designs programs for organizations and communities and often contributes to policy. If I want to work on the park and the school track and not only in my classroom, the CHW and health education paths fit better than private coaching.

What Partners Would Need From Me

Partnerships at the community and policy levels work only if each partner gets something. The parent group wants safe places for children to play after school. The neighborhood association wants a livelier park and fewer complaints about the broken fountain. The school district wants to avoid liability and extra cost. A fitness instructor can offer free leadership of the walking group, attendance counts that show demand and a plan for supervision. Being clear about what each partner gains makes it more likely that the track opens and stays open.

Conclusion

The ecological model shows that the inactivity I see in my neighborhood has causes at every level, from individual habits to a locked school track. A fitness instructor can act at each level, with decreasing control and increasing reach. Applying the model to my own work made clear that the roles I am considering differ partly in how far up the levels they reach, and that matters for which one I choose.

References

Brown, D. R., Zaganjor, H., Graff, K. A., Rose, K., & Sallis, J. F. (2023). How health and fitness professionals can further advance the nation's health by working across the ecological model. ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, 27(4), 42-50. https://doi.org/10.1249/FIT.0000000000000882

McLeroy, K. R., Bibeau, D., Steckler, A., & Glanz, K. (1988). An ecological perspective on health promotion programs. Health Education Quarterly, 15(4), 351-377. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019818801500401

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2018). Physical activity guidelines for Americans (2nd ed.). https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/physical-activity-guidelines