The relationship of stress, self-esteem, and coping styles to health promoting behaviors of adolescents in Thailand

During adolescence there is a rapid transition period of physiological, psychological, and sociological change in which many health-related behaviors, both physical and mental are developed or established (Rice, 1993).; Currently, there are no data indicating the relationship of self-esteem, stress, and coping styles to health promoting behaviors in Thai adolescents, who comprise one-fifth of the total Thai population, in a different context from Western adolescents. The theoretical framework for this study is based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) concept of stress and coping and Pender's health promotion model (1996). The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship of stress, self-esteem and coping styles to health promoting behaviors of adolescents in Thailand.; Data were collected over a three month period with a random sample of 1,072 adolescents in public and private high schools in Bangkok, Thailand. The data collection instruments included: (a) the culturally Modified Thai General Health Questionaire-28 (GHQ-28)(Pirasorn, 1998); (b) the Thai version of the Five Scale Test of Self-Esteem for Children (FSC)(Puthisri & Silpakit, 1998); (c) the Cultural Modified Jalowice Coping Scale (JCS) (Jirapaet, 2000); (d) the Adolescent Lifestyle Questionnaire (Gillis, 1997); and (e) a Personal Information Form.; Significance, at <.05, was demonstrated throughout the study in descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation, stepwise multiple regression, independent t-Test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) analyses. The findings showed significantly positive relationships between adolescents' health promoting behaviors and (a) self-esteem and (b) coping styles. There were significantly negative relationships between stress and health promoting behaviors. The findings also revealed that self-esteem had the highest correlation with health promoting behaviors, followed by coping styles and stress, and accounted for 25% of variance. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...