Structural Equation Model for the Health Behaviors of University Students in Korea / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: A structural equation model was analysed to explore the determinants of health behaviors of university students in Korea. METNOD: Nine hundred sixty nine university students were selected by random cluster sampling from five universities located in the central area of Korea. DATA COLLECTION: The data was collected by questionnaires about demographic characteristics, stressful life events, perceived social support, perceived health status and health behaviors. RESULTS: 1. Gender showed indirect effect on health behaviors. 2. Living together with(out) family had a direct effecton health behaviors: students living with family showed more positive health behaviors. 3. Stressful life events had an indirect effect on health behaviors via perceived health status;a higher score of stressful life events was the predictor for negative health behaviors. 4. A higher score of perceived health status predicted positive health behaviors. RECOMMENDATION: Each university should be encouraged to develop a health behavior control program and health promotion program for their own university students. It would be more effective to develop health programs separately according to the demographic or social characteristics of the students. It is also necessary for the Ministry of Education to reform the School Health Act and school health policy to strengthen a health promotion program for university students. In conclusion, following studies should identify and promote the validity and reliability of perceived health status and health behaviors measurements.

Social Support, Stressful Life Events, and Health Behaviors of Korean Undergraduate Students / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: This cross-sectional study was designed to explore the relationship among social support, experienced stressful life events and health behaviors of Korean undergraduate students, and validate the mediator effect of social support. METHOD: One thousand four hundred fifty-three undergraduate students were randomly selected from five universities located in the middle area of Korea. RESULT: The health behaviors of Korean undergraduates tend to have unhealthy patterns. In the case of the students living without family, experiencing more stressful life events and perceiving lower social support, health behaviors are poor. The relationship between perceived social supports, the frequency of the experienced stressful life events and the score of health behavior patterns is statistically significant. After controlling the effect of social support, the correlation coefficient between the frequency of experienced stressful life events and the score of health behavior patterns was slightly lower. The score of health behaviors between the group with an extremely high score of social support and the group with an extremely low score were statistically significantly different. CONCLUSION: Future studies need to be pursued to develop various strategies such as a health education programs and counseling programs for health maintenance and health promotion of undergraduates.

A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of the Supportive Nurisng Intervention / 아동간호학회지

This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of the supportive nursing intervention and analyze its components in 14 studies carried out from Jan. 1980 to Jun. 1997. The supportive nursing intervention studies divided into three types according to the components of conceptual definitons.; (1)supportive nursing behavior, (2)social support, and (3)combination of social support and supportive nursing behavior. The various terms referred to the supportive nursing intervention didn't have the clear differentiating conceptual and operational definitions and the logical relationship among them. The effects of supportive nursing intervention were measured by the 23 dependent variables using self-report and the 5 dependent variables using physiological indices. The dependent variables were measured more than two were role behavior compliance, anxiety, depression, health belief, knowledge about the disease, helplessness and stressful behavior response. The average effects of the supportive nursing intervention ranged from 0.218 to 2.745 for the d index. The three variables of them, which were anxiety, depression and stressful behavior response, were homogeneous statistically by homogeniety test. Results of the meta- analysis indicated that the supportive nursing intervention had moderate to large effects on anxiety(d=0.41), depression (d=0.66) and stressful behavior response (d=0.86).