THE RELATIONSHIP OF DEFINITION OF HEALTH, PERCEIVED HEALTH STATUS, SELF-EFFICACY, PARENTAL HEALTH-PROMOTING LIFESTYLE, AND SELECTED DEMOGRAPHICS TO HEALTH-PROMOTING LIFESTYLE IN ADOLESCENT FEMALES.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 236
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Health.
Description: The relationship of definition of health, perceived health status, self-efficacy, parental health-promoting lifestyle, and selected demographics to health-promoting lifestyle in adolescent females was investigated in 184 adolescents and their parents, using a descriptive, correlational design. A modification of Pender's (1982, 1987a) Health Promotion Model provided the conceptual framework for the study. Three research questions evolving from the conceptual model guided the study. Triangulation was accomplished by analysis of data from semi-structured interviews with a subsample of eight adolescent participants. Four instruments measured the study's major variables: the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile, General Self-Efficacy Scale, Health Scale, and the Laffrey Health Conception Scale.

Quantitative results indicated that mothers' and fathers' health-promoting lifestyles were weakly but significantly correlated with their daughters' health-promoting lifestyles (r =.28, p $<$ 01; r =.16, p $<$.05, respectively). A strong relationship existed among the predictor variables of definition of health (clinical, functional, and eudaimonistic subscales), self-efficacy, perceived health status, ethnicity, and adolescents' health-promoting lifestyles (R =.64). Together these variables accounted for 41% of the variance in AHPLP scores.

Qualitative findings supported the quantitative findings adding richness and depth to them. Based on the interviews, the majority of adolescents perceived their parents, particularly their mothers as influencing their lifestyle patterns. A trend was noted in the qualitative response to the meaning of health for the adolescents. Those who scored high on the HPLP were more likely to view health in terms of exuberant well-being than those who scored low on the HPLP.

Results indicated that health professionals efforts to enhance health-promoting lifestyles in adolescent females should focus on adolescents' definitions of health, perceived health status, and self-efficacy. As well, parents, particularly mothers' health-promoting lifestyles should be considered when trying to improve adolescents' lifestyles.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-05, Section: B, page: 2439.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1993.

School code: 0227.