Adolescents' health behaviours and its associations with psychological variables.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the study was to investigate the prevalence of health risk behaviours among a random sample of Korean adolescents and the relationship of psychological variables with health risk behaviours. METHODS 885 students ranged from 7th to 9th grade were randomly selected from 3 junior high schools in Dobong-gu district, Seoul. Four Korean-version measures were used to assess the health risk behaviour and psychological variables of adolescents. Frequency analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were performed to accomplish the purpose of the study. RESULTS Korean adolescents showed high prevalence of physical inactivity (n = 67%), smoking (n = 54%), drinking alcohol (n = 69%), eating problem (n = 49%), mental health problem (n = 57%), and viewing pornography (n = 47%). In addition, this study revealed that the three psychological variables (multidimensional health locus of control, self-efficacy, and self-esteem) were significantly correlated with health risk behaviours, and had significant effect to account for health risk behaviours (R2 = 0.42 for physical inactivity, 0.33 for viewing pomography, 0.31 for smoking, 0.28 for mental health problems, 0.26 for illegal drug use, 0.19 for drinking alcohol, and 0.15 for eating problem). CONCLUSION The current study provides significant information on psychological variables related to adolescents' health risk behaviour. This study has the potential to influence the development of better health education and promotion programs for adolescents.