ADOLESCENTS’ PERCEIVED HEALTH RISK AND HEALTH LOCUS OF CONTROL

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the prevalence of health risk behaviors among a random sample of Korean adolescents and the relationship of psychological variables with health risk behaviors. 885 students ranged from 7th to 9th grade were randomly selected from 3 junior high schools in Dobong-gu district, Seoul. Four Koreanversion measures were used to assess the health risk behavior and psychological variables of adolescents. 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 to this, this study revealed that the three sub variables of health locus of control were significantly correlated with health risk behaviors, and had significant effect to account for health risk behaviors. This study has the potential to influence the development of better health education and promotion programs for adolescents.