Predicting children's use of health enhancing behaviors: Do parental socioeconomic status, health knowledge, and self-regulation matter?

• Authors: Kitsantas A. , Kitsantas P.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The purpose of the present exploratory study was twofold: (a) to investigate the relationship among parents' and children's knowledge regarding health enhancing behaviors, self-regulation of health, self-efficacy beliefs, and parental socioeconomic status (SES), and (b) to examine whether parental SES, knowledge, self-regulation, and self-efficacy beliefs of health enhancing behaviors predict children's knowledge about health enhancing behaviors, their use of self-regulatory strategies towards the maintenance of health enhancing behaviors, and their self-efficacy beliefs to implement these strategies. The participants included 131 parents and their children. The results showed positive significant correlations among parents' and children's knowledge of health enhancing behaviors, self-regulated strategies, self-efficacy beliefs, and SES. In addition, using regression analyses and squared semi-partial correlations, the strongest predictor of children's self-regulatory skills and self-efficacy beliefs was parents' knowledge of health enhancing behaviors after accounting for SES. A large portion of the variance in children's knowledge of health enhancing behaviors was explained by parents' self-regulation, followed by parents' health knowledge. Parental self-efficacy beliefs were significantly associated only with children's self-efficacy. The findings are discussed from a social cognitive perspective of self-regulation.

Keywords

EN

CHILDREN & HEALTH; PARENTAL SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS; SELF-REGULATION

Discipline

• PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCHOLOGY

• Publisher: Committee for Psychological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 17-23
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Kitsantas A.

author

Kitsantas P.

• George Mason University, Graduate School of Education, Program in Educational Psychology, Fairfax, VA 22030,

• Anastasia Kitsantas, George Mason University, Graduate School of Education, Program in Educational Psychology, Fairfax, VA 22030,

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

06PLAAAA01763801