Relations between Health Perception and Physical Self-Concept in Adolescents

Pedro Cantero Castrillo,M Belén Toja Reboredo,M De Los Ángeles Fernández Villarino,Miguel Ángel González Valeiro

doi:10.2174/1875399x02013010137

Abstract

Background: Self-rated health is influenced by personal characteristics, such as gender and age. Similarly, it seems that physical self-concept can influence this perception, being positively related to healthy habits and quality of life. Adolescence is a sensitive stage in establishing the physical self-concept as well as in health-related behaviours. Therefore, it is necessary to study these relationships since the behaviours established at these ages will have a lasting impact on life. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse the relation between physical self-concept and self-rated health in adolescents. Methods: A sample of 1697 adolescents (824 boys; 48.5% and 873 girls; 51.5%), aged between 12 and 16 years old (14.2 ±1.0) participated in the study. For data collection, a questionnaire was used. The measured variables were perception of health, physical self-concept and gender. A chi-square test was used to analyse the data and evaluate the association between the variables, and Cramer´s V was used to quantify the degree of association. A Classification and Regression Tree (CART) evaluation was applied to discover the influence of the variables that have an effect on the perception of health. Results: The results show that boys perceive to have better health and greater physical self-concept than girls. Similarly, a positive relationship has been found between the health´s perception in both genders and the physical self-concept, in each of its subdomains. Conclusion: A positive relationship has been found between health perception and physical self-concept. Therefore, an increase in the physical self-concept is presented as an opportunity to improve health self-perception, which can positively affect the health of young people.

Highlights

Perception of health and physical self-concept are two complex constructs that have been identified as conscious reflection processes, which enable people to evaluate different aspects that surround them [1, 2]
The results show that boys perceive to have better health and greater physical self-concept than girls
A positive relationship has been found between health perception and physical self-concept

Summary

Introduction

Perception of health and physical self-concept are two complex constructs that have been identified as conscious reflection processes, which enable people to evaluate different aspects that surround them [1, 2]. Adolescence is a period in life that is identified by the absence of illness and in which a positive perception of health is usually shown [11 - 14]. Evidence of differences with respect to gender has been found; it would seem that girls perceive themselves as having a poorer state of health in comparison with boys [15 - 17]. This is probably because perception is linked to personal, sociocultural, behavioural and psychological factors [18]. Self-rated health is influenced by personal characteristics, such as gender and age It seems that physical self-concept can influence this perception, being positively related to healthy habits and quality of life. It is necessary to study these relationships since the behaviours established at these ages will have a lasting impact on life

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion