Psychological predictors of health-related behaviour in children

Abstract

Psychological variables such as self-efficacy, stress, and coping have proven their predictive power on health protective and health risk behaviour in adolescence and adulthood. Furthermore, health-related behaviour at early stages of development is seen as an important factor in determining health-related behaviour at later stages of development. Consequently, research on psychological variables predicting health-related behaviours at early stages of development should be an important topic with regard to health promotion and disease prevention, although this is still a neglected research area. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to analyse the importance of psychological variables in predicting health-risky and health protective behaviour in elementary school children. The study sample consisted of 345 fourth-graders (193 girls and 152 boys) with a mean age of 10.1 and 10.0 years, respectively, assessed three times within 1 year. The results showed that negative health-related behaviour is primarily influenced by stress experiences and maladaptive coping. Self-efficacy provides additional effects in girls. For positive health-related behaviour, self-efficacy is the dominant predictor in both girls and boys. The significance of the results for health-promotion during early developmental stages is discussed.