Healthy lifestyle behaviors among adolescents in Turkey

This study was designed in descriptive-correlational in order to determine the healthy lifestyle behaviors of the adolescences and to examine the relationships between the factors influenced.

The sample population was composed of 912 students in 14-18 age group attending three different high schools in Gungoren, Istanbul.

The data concerning this study was collected through the form for “Evaluation of Adolescents Characteristics”developed by the researcher based on the health promotion model and through Adolescent Lifestyle Profile (ALP) scale developed by Hendricks Murdaugh and Pender. The psychometric evulation of the Turkish language ALP scale were carried out.

It was found that 58% of the adolescents were female; 62,5% were born in a city center.While the mothers of 44,6% of the students were primary school graduates, the fathers of 36% of the students were high school graduates. The total points of ALP scale were found as average 122,1±14,5. A meaningful relationship was found between total health behavior point and age, educational background of fathers, mothers’ occupation, have a chronic disease, and perceived health status. By means of regression analysis, educational background of fathers and perceptions about health were determined as influential factors in health behaviors. Accordingly, having a father with a university degree increases health behavior 3,4 times and perception about health at a good level increases health behavior 3,8 times. Compared with similar studies, it was determined that the health behavior points of the students involved in the research group were at a good level. It was considered that the results of the study were basic data for similar studies and for programs to develop adolescence health.