Yh. Kim, Korean adolescents' health risk behaviors and their relationships with theselected psychological constructs, J ADOLES H, 29(4), 2001, pp. 298-306
Purpose: To explore the negative health behaviors of Korean adolescents, re
veal factors affecting their negative health behavior, and present a substa
ntial correlation model between the negative health behaviors and psycholog
ical factors.
Methods: A total of 2124 adolescents randomly selected from junior high and
high schools in Seoul were surveyed. Four Korean-version instruments were
used to identify the negative health behavior and psychological construct o
f adolescents: Adolescent Health Survey, Health Locus of Control scale, Sel
f-Esteem scale, and Self-Efficacy scale.
Results: Korean adolescents showed high prevalence of smoking, drinking alc
ohol, bad eating habits, and viewing pornography; and very low prevalence,
however, of sexual intercourse and illegal drug use. In addition to this, t
he findings revealed that the subdomains in adolescents' negative health be
havior were statistically correlated with the subdimensions of a psychologi
cal factor. A correlation model was an adequate fit to identify a possible
relationship between the negative health behaviors and the psychological fa
ctors.
Conclusions: This study provides significant and new information about the
relatively unstudied Korean adolescents and has the potential to influence
the development of better health education and health psychology. (C) Socie
ty for Adolescent Medicine, 2001.