Korean Adolescents’ Health Risk Behaviors and Their Relationships with the Selected Psychological Constructs
AUTHOR(S)
PUBLISHED
2001 in Journal of Adolescent Health, Vol. 29(4), pp. 298-306
KEY FINDINGS
- This study found that pornography viewing is linked to lower self-esteem among Korean teens.
ABSTRACT
Explores the negative health behaviors (NHBs) of Korean adolescents, including factors affecting their NHBs, and presents a substantial correlation model between the NHBs and psychological factors. 2,124 adolescents (aged 14–18 yrs) randomly selected from junior high and high schools in Seoul were surveyed. Four Korean-version instruments were used to identify NHBs and psychological constructs: Adolescent Health Survey, Health Locus of Control (HLC) scale, Self-Esteem scale, and Self-Efficacy scale. The Ss had a high prevalence... READ FULL ABSTRACT
EXCERPTS
- "Interestingly, the results indicated that many Korean adolescents have already experienced pornography. This phenomenon might be a negative effect resulting from a radical social change such as the extensive dissemination of computers and the easy availability of the Internet...the self-esteem construct was also substantially correlated with eating problems (r = −.26), illegal drug use (r = −.24), lack of exercise (r = −.22), viewing of pornography (r = −.18), and mental health problems (r = .18)."
