IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v45y1997i10p1549-1562.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health-related behaviours and psycho-social characteristics of 18 year-old Australians

Author

Listed:
  • Milligan, R. A. K.
  • Burke, V.
  • Beilin, L. J.
  • Richards, J.
  • Dunbar, D.
  • Spencer, M.
  • Balde, E.
  • Gracey, M. P.

Abstract

Psychosocial variables associated with health-related behaviours for diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking were examined in 18 year-old Australian men (n = 301) and women (n = 282). These psychosocial variables included Type A behaviour and depression, perceived self-efficacy for engaging in healthy behaviours and perceived barriers to performing these behaviours. Self-efficacy for following a healthy diet and moderating alcohol intake was greater in females but males had higher self-efficacy for physical activity. Self-efficacy for smoking did not differ according to gender. Lack of willpower was perceived as a barrier to desirable dietary, smoking and physical activity behaviours. Other perceived diet-related barriers included buying suitable foods when eating out, ignorance about appropriate foods and, in young women, perceived expense. Barriers for desirable levels of physical activity included planning time, tiredness, limiting social life and lack of social support. Social occasions were the main perceived barriers preventing both alcohol moderation and quitting smoking. Lack of family support, stress and concerns about weight gain, particularly in women, were perceived barriers to smoking cessation. Type A behaviour was associated with smoking and "unsafe" drinking in both men and women, generally unhealthy dietary choices in young women but with greater physical activity in young men. Depressive affect was significantly higher in female smokers and "unsafe" drinkers and tended to have an inverse relationship with physical activity in men and women. Depressive affect was inversely related to self-efficacy in both men and women for each of the health behaviours examined. Health promotion in young adults should therefore attempt to increase self-efficacy and address perceived barriers to change, taking into account gender-related differences in attitudes and the influence of depression and Type A characteristics on health-related behaviours.

Suggested Citation

  • Milligan, R. A. K. & Burke, V. & Beilin, L. J. & Richards, J. & Dunbar, D. & Spencer, M. & Balde, E. & Gracey, M. P., 1997. "Health-related behaviours and psycho-social characteristics of 18 year-old Australians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1549-1562, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:45:y:1997:i:10:p:1549-1562
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(97)00092-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jung, Se-Hwan & Tsakos, Georgios & Sheiham, Aubrey & Ryu, Jae-In & Watt, Richard G., 2010. "Socio-economic status and oral health-related behaviours in Korean adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1780-1788, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:45:y:1997:i:10:p:1549-1562. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.