Orginal Article: Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Version of the Healthy Lifestyle Belief Scale for Adolescents

Abstract

Background and purposeMeasuring the adolescent awareness of healthy lifestyle behaviors and the self-efficacy needed to change behaviors is an important step in improving the health of this population. The Healthy Lifestyle Beliefs Scale is one such instrument, and it has been used to measure the healthy behaviors of adolescents in the United States. This study aims to extend this instrument by evaluating its validity and reliability in Turkish adolescents. MethodsThis methodological, descriptive, correlational study was conducted on 843 adolescents between October 2019 and November 2019. Data were collected using a socio-demographic information form and the Healthy Lifestyle Beliefs Scale. Factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and item–total score analysis were used for the data analysis. ResultsThe scale consisted of 16 items and three subscales. The three subscales were found to explain 57.66% of the total variance. The total factor loading was >0.30 in both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. In the confirmatory factor analysis, all the goodness of fit indexes were >0.91, and the root mean square error of approximation was <0.08. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the overall scale was 0.90, and the Cronbach's alpha values for the subscales were 0.79–0.84. DiscussionThe Healthy Lifestyle Beliefs Scale for adolescents was found to be a valid and reliable measurement tool for the Turkish sample. Practice implicationsDetermining the healthy lifestyle beliefs of adolescents can contribute to the creation of healthy lifestyle behaviors.