J Korean Acad Community Health Nurs JKACHN Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing 1225-9594 2288-4203 Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing 10.12799/jkachn.2010.21.4.458 Original Article Factors Affecting the Health Behavior of Elementary School Children at a Late School Age Oh Jina Associate Professor, Department of Nursing, Inje University · Institute for Health Science Research, Korea. Address reprint requests to: Oh, Jina, Department of Nursing, Inje University, Gaegum 2-dong, Busanjin-gu, Busan 614-735, Korea. Tel: 82-51-890-6833, Fax: 82-51-896-9840, ohjina@inje.ac.kr 12 2010 04 04 2014 21 4 458 467 30 09 2010 14 12 2010 15 12 2010 © 2010 Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing 2010 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Purpose

This study was conducted in order to identify factors related to the health behavior in elementary school children at a late school age and to provide basic data to develop more concrete and practical applications for health promotion and disease prevention.

 Methods

The participants were 2,775 4th, 5th and 6th graders sampled from 10 elementary schools in Busan Metropolitan City and data were collected from 15th May to 30th June, 2010. The collected data were analyzed by mean, percentile, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression using the SPSS/WIN 17.0 program.

 Results

The average percentiles for self-rated health, body satisfaction, stress, parent attachment, self-esteem, and health behavior were 82.8, 69.5, 40.9, 79.3, 75.9 and 75.9, respectively. There was significant relationship among the levels of self-rated health, body satisfaction, stress, parent attachment, self-esteem, and health behavior. Body satisfaction was the most powerful factor to the health behavior of elementary school children at a late school age, and was followed by parent attachment, self-rated health, self-esteem, and grade in order. These variables explained 26.6% of the total variance in health behavior.

 Conclusion

Health promotion behavior programs including body satisfaction and self-esteem elevation programs should be applied to children at home and in school and community. To achieve this, institutional and economic support should be continued.

 Health behavior Body mass index Body image Self esteem Parent-child relations 2009 Inje University research grant

The present research has been supported by the 2009 Inje University research grant.

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Characteristics of the Latter Elementary School Children (N=2,275)

†BMI (body mass index)=weight (kg)/height (m)2; ‡The result of two sample t-test: t (p); §The result of three sample ANOVA and Scheffe test: f (p).

Variables' Mean Comparison according to Sex, Grade, and BMI (N=2,275)

Correlation of Core Variables on Health Behavior (N=2,275)

Influencing Factors on Health Behavior of the Latter Elementary School Children (N=2,275)