Health Behaviors among Korean Adolescents: A Content Analysis

Yun Hee Shin; Jihea Choi

doi:10.15384/kjhp.2014.14.3.83

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Shin and Choi: Health Behaviors among Korean Adolescents: A Content Analysis

Original Article

Korean J Health Promot 2014;14(3):83-92.

Published online: 20 January 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2014.14.3.83

Health Behaviors among Korean Adolescents: A Content Analysis

Yun Hee Shin, Jihea Choi

Department of Nursing, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Korea

￭ Corresponding author：Jihea Choi, PhD Department of Nursing, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, 20 Ilsan-ro, Wonju 220-701, Korea Tel: +82-33-741-0379, Fax: +82-33-743-9490 E-mail: jiheachoi@yonsei.ac.kr

Received 31 March 2014 Accepted 23 July 2014

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.

Abstract

Background

Adolescence is the starting period for health behaviors that will affect their lives throughout adulthood. Unhealthy behaviors in Korean adolescents have increased compared to previous generations. To promote health behaviors in this group, a comprehensive measurement of Korean adolescents' health behaviors is necessary. Most previous studies have used revised instruments, which were developed in other cultures, but not tools developed to measure health behaviors based on the perspectives of Korean adolescents. Identifying the perception of health behavior among Korean adolescents is important for the future of health promotion. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate Korean adolescents' perceptions of their health behaviors.

Methods

A qualitative study was conducted to attain a condensed and broad description of the health behaviors that adolescents perceived as health-promoting behaviors or risk behaviors. From October to December 2008, 61 Korean middle and high school students were interviewed on their perceptions of health behaviors. Data were analyzed using inductive qualitative content analysis.

Results

Korean adolescents reported health behaviors related to stress, mental health, sleep habits, dietary habits, weight control, physical activity, hygiene habits, safety, computer use, substance use, health screening and others.

Conclusions

The results provide socio-cultural characteristics about the perception of health behaviors among Korean adolescents and should contribute to guiding assessment of health behaviors in Korean adolescents and provide a reference for developing valuable health-promoting interventions based on these characteristics.

Keywords: Adolescents, Health behavior, Perception, Qualitative research

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Figure 1.

Category: stress and mental health

Figure 2.

Category: dietary habits

Table 1.

Content analysis of health behaviors among Korean adolescents

Significant statements	Sub-category		Category
· Not feeling stressed, feeling stressed	· Feeling stress	· Stress	· Stress and mental health
· Being less stressed, releasing stress rapidly, releasing stress well, getting it out one's mind, enduring stress, feeling stability, coping with stress effectively, not being able to cope with stress, not coping with stress, not holding it in	· Managing stress
· Thinking positively, having a positive state of mind, living happily, living pleasantly, thinking negatively	· Thinking positively	· Mental health
· Becoming depressed, getting angry easily, falling into despair, complaining excessively, not enduring being defeated, suppressing one's feelings	· Controlling one's emotion
· Loving oneself, considering oneself as a good person, knowing one's strength and weakness, not belittling oneself, acting confidently in everything	· Establishing self-identity
· Getting enough sleep, not being easily awakened, sleeping well, sleep deficiency, not sleeping well, being tired due to sleep deficiency	· Maintaining good quality of sleep		· Sleep habits
· Having irregular sleep hours, sleeping late, waking up late, taking stimulants in order to be awake, taking sleep-inducing drugs	· Regular sleeping pattern
· Not having an unbalanced diet, having a balanced diet, eating vegetables and fruits, drinking enough water, having an unbalance diet, eating high caloric food, eating too much meat, having substandard food, eating fast-food, eating a lot of spicy/salty/sweet food, drinking soda, drinking beverage with caffeine	· Having nutritional balance		· Dietary habits
· Having regular meals, not eating between meals, having breakfast every day without skipping, having irregular meals, skipping meals, having a late snack	· Keeping regular meal times
· Eating the same amount and calories at each meal, having a suitable amount of food, not overeating, not being intemperate in eating	· Having proper amount of food
· Not being on a serious weight control, fasting all day, excessive weight loss, serious weight control, excessive exercise, drinking water only, without having any meals, wish to have a slim body like a model	· Making an effort to watch one's weight		· Weight control
· Doing exercise regularly, keeping up exercise in gym class, not exercising	· Exercising regularly		· Physical activity
· Engaging in too much physical activity, exercising excessively, exercising over one's fitness level	· Well-fitted exercises
· Going to school by foot instead of bus or taxi, not having a sedentary lifestyle	· Doing lifestyle exercises
· Taking showers, keeping oneself clean, washing after coming home, brushing teeth, not keeping oneself clean, unclean sanitary condition	· Keeping oneself clean		· Hygiene habits
· Riding a motorcycle, not using pedestrian crossings, not wearing a seat belt, not wearing a helmet			· Safety
· Not using a computer for a long time, using a computer a lot, playing computer games, using a computer a lot, being addicted to computer games, using a computer all night			· Computer use
· Smoking tobacco	· Smoking and drinking		· Substance use
· Drinking alcohol
· Taking narcotics, excessive drug use	· Using drug and noxious
· Inhaling butane gas, inhaling bond	substance
· Regular dental checkups, having periodic medical checkups, receiving scheduled vaccination	· Having regular checkups		· Health screening and others
· Receiving medical attention when feeling sick, not visiting the hospital when sick	· Early hospital visits
· Taking a five or ten-minute break every hour while studying, maintaining correct posture, studying while lying face-down, not straightening oneself up, sitting all day, sitting cross-legged	· Having good posture

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