| Adolescents' decline in exercise results in higher rates of overweight/obesity and the consequences of overweight/obesity become health threats in adolescents' later lives. The purpose of this study was to understand exercise behavior in Thai adolescents. Pender's health promotion model (HPM) guided this study. The specific aims were to: (1) translate English instruments into Thai language, (2) revise the Thai version to be culturally specific to Thai adolescents, (3) examine the effectiveness of the back-translation method, (4) evaluate the psychometric properties of the Thai version, and (5) test Pender's HPM with bilingual Thai adolescents.;Four bilingual experts translated and back translated the English instruments into the Thai language; then a panel of three experts reviewed five versions of the English and Thai instruments and provided suggestions for the final Thai version. The final Thai version was made culturally specific by a focus group of 10 bilingual Thai adolescents. Three hundred eleven bilingual Thai adolescents volunteered for the study. After obtaining assent/consent forms, volunteers were asked to complete the original English and the final Thai versions two weeks apart. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired t-test to examine the effectiveness of the back-translation, confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory factor analysis to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Thai version, and path analyses to test Pender's health promotion model.;The majority of participants were junior high school students with an average age of 14. The back-translation method was useful to translate the English instruments into the Thai language because several English and Thai subscales and scales were similar. Because the English instruments were developed in the American culture, revisions to make the new translations culturally specific reflected the uniqueness of the Thai people. Pender's HPM was useful in explaining exercise behavior for Thai adolescents. This study provided a better understanding of exercise in Thai adolescents, a better understanding of cultural differences, a contribution to nursing knowledge, and the application of the HPM to Thai adolescents. |
