Relationship between Adolescents’ Health Beliefs and Health Behavior

Aim: This study aims to determine the relationship between Health Behavior and Health Locus of Control among 1270 adolescents (Boys N = 635 and Girls = 635) who were drawn from Bangalore rural and urban district government high schools (mean age 13.76 years). Methodology: The Global School based Health survey (WHO, 2004) and Multidimensional Health Locus of Control by Wallston and Wallston, questionnaires were used to assess health locus of control and health behavior respectively. The data obtained was subjected to statistical analysis using Pearson’s product moment correlation methods to examine the relationship between these variables. Results and Interpretation: Findings revealed that total health behavior score of adolescents is significantly correlated with ‘internal’ and ‘powerful others’ dimensions of health locus of control. Further, the ‘chance factor’ of health locus of control did not show any significant relationship with the total health behavior score. From this it can be inferred that adolescents with high inclinations towards ‘internal health locus of control’ and ‘powerful others’ have healthier dimensions of positive behaviors. Findings have also revealed that health behavior is not significantly correlated with the beliefs that ‘health is a function of chance/luck’.