EXPLORING ASPECTS OF FAMILY HEALTH: PARENTS AND ADOLESCENTS.
Contributors: Michigan State University.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 213
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Public Health.; Home Economics.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: The influence of the family on the health behavior of its members was investigated in this cross-sectional exploratory study. A conceptual model which included components of current health behavior, family ecology, and child development frameworks and models provided study guidance. A total of 206 respondents, i.e., 60 dual parent families composed of father, mother and adolescent, and 13 female-headed single parent families composed of mother and adolescent completed pen and pencil questionnaires. The presence of a family characteristic, a previously unknown or minimally investigated family phenomena, was determined by the congruency of family members' reports on health status, intrinsic motivation, health behavior (psychosocial and behavioral), and family functioning. The Discrepancy Score and Conjunctive Models (Klein, 1984) and their respective statistical approaches, i.e., derived discrepancy score and t-test and analysis of variance with repeated measures and F-test, determined congruency. Pearson correlations accompanied by frequencies of the coefficients were used to examine within family relationships between the supported characteristics for dual parent families. Analysis of variance was used to examine differences between family types on the supported family characteristics. Descriptive Pearson correlations examined supported characteristics by family type and income.

Both approaches supported health status as a family characteristic, neither supported intrinsic motivation, and there was conflicting support of health behavior and family functioning. Other findings were: a positive relationship between health status and family functioning from the with-in family perspective, no differences between dual and single parent characteristics, and non-significant correlations between the characteristics and income by family type.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-05, Section: A, page: 1514.

Thesis (PH.D.)--MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, 1990.

School code: 0128.