CHES (Certified Health Education Specialist) 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

Enabling factors are best defined as characteristics that facilitate behavioral change. These factors play a significant role in determining whether individuals can adopt and maintain health-promoting behaviors. They encompass a variety of elements such as skills, resources, and social supports that empower individuals to take action towards health-focused goals.

For example, having access to health education, social support from family and friends, and available resources such as fitness facilities or healthy food options all act as enabling factors. They create an environment where positive health behaviors can be easily adopted and sustained, reducing obstacles that individuals might otherwise face in making healthful choices.

In contrast, barriers to accessing health services impede behavior change, while rewards for maintaining healthy behaviors are motivational but do not facilitate behavior change directly. Individual attitudes towards health, while influential, do not necessarily provide the means or resources required to support sustained behavior change on their own.