Perceived health locus of control, self-esteem, and its relations to psychological well-being status in Iranian students

Health locus of control [HLC] has been associated with a variety of ailments and health outcomes and designed to predict behaviors and cognitive processes relevant to mental and physical health. This study investigated the relationships between perceived health locus of control, self-esteem, and mental health status among Iranian students. In this analytical study the subjects were recruited from students in Gonabad University of Medical Sciences, Iran, who studied in the first year [N= 154]. Students completed the questionnaires for assessing demographic, perceived health locus of control, self-esteem and psychological well-being data. The statistical analysis revealed a negative relationship between perceived Internal HLC and self-esteem with psychological well-being. The positive correlation of the perceived Change HLC with psychological well-being was statistically significant [r=0.21, P<0.01] and the positive correlation of the perceived Internal HLC with self-esteem was statistically significant [r=0.25, P<0.01]. A significantly direct relationship between low perceived Internal HLC, self-esteem and psychological problems was found among these students. The findings will be addressed in relation to their implications for effective mental health education based on health locus of control especially internal and powerful others beliefs associated with self-esteem for students. This will require additional monitoring and uninterrupted trying in order to be effective

[Implementation of participatory-educational program based on Precede model for self-esteem and psychological well-being enhancement of university students]

Students are susceptible to mental health and psychological problems in different situations. The purpose of this study was to use a participatory-educational intervention for enhancement of self-esteem and psychological well-being of the students of Gonabad and Birjand medical sciences universities. This experimental study was based on Precede model in which 154 university students were randomly selected for the case and control groups. The data were collected by GHQ>-28, Rosenberg's self-esteem scale, enabling, predisposing and reinforcement factors questionnaires. The skill training program was used based on focus group discussion method in the sub-group of 12 participants. Then planned and implemented program was evaluated in the groups. The data were analysed using SPSS software. The results showed that there are significant differences between predisposing, enabling and reinforcement factors, self-esteem and psychological well-being variables before and after intervention. Moreover, after intervention, differences in psychological well-being [P<0.0001], self-esteem [P<0.001], predisposing factors [P<0.01], enabling and reinforcement factors [P<0.02] in case a and control groups, were significant. The study showed that skill training based on Precede Model can enhance self-esteem and psychological well-being and leads to empowerment and participation

[ relationship between health locus of control and life style in pregnant women]

Health control beliefs account for one of the most important indicators of health beliefs for planning health educational programs. It's also known as a main structure in understanding and predicting health behaviors. In addition, health control beliefs are predictor of health behaviors. Thus, they play a basic role in the pregnancy period. This study was conducted to assess the relationship between health controls beliefs and life style in the pregnancy period. This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted at Gonabad University of Medical Sciences in 2008. The samples were 115 pregnant women referring to therapeutic- health centers of Gonabad, Iran, that were selected by simple random sampling. Measurement tools were consisted of three questionnaires: personal information inventory, multi-dimensional scale of health control beliefs and life styles questionnaire in pregnancy period. The collected data were analyzed using One-way ANOVA by the SPSS software. The mean age and pregnancy age of the samples were 20 +/- .27 year's and 23 +/- .6 weeks respectively. 83.5 percent of the women were householders, 41.7 percent had diploma and 54.8 percent were experiencing their first pregnancy. The highest scores of health control belief scale were related to internal belief, effective person belief and chance belief dimensions respectively. In addition, statistical analysis showed significant relationship between dimension of internal belief of health control and dimensions of nutrition and safety from life style in pregnancy period. The present study showed that health internal control belief is higher, in comparison to other two criteria, in pregnant women of Gonabad. However, thinking based health internal control belief is higher, in comparison to other two criteria, in pregnant women of Gonabad. However, thinking based health control beliefs, especially internal health control beliefs, can be strengthened by using appropriate teaching methods in pregnant women, as part of high risk group

Association of health locus control theory and self-esteem with physical activity in university students

Background and Purpose: Meeting the physical movement requirements of community members will remarkably increase its power. Studies on the effect of self-esteem and health locus of control [HLC] in inducing healthy behaviors have provided a scientific framework for these concepts in public health and health psychology. The present study investigates the relationship of physical activities and self-esteem with health locus of control in athletic and non-athletic university students

Methods and Materials: The research is a case-control study involving 74 athletic university students [cases] and 74 non-athletics [controls] from Gonabad University of Medical University. Data were collected by a demographic questionnaire Self-esteem scale and MHLC-Form B. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS 11.5 using one-way ANOVA logistic regression chi-square Pearson correlation coefficient and independent t-test

Results: The findings showed that in athletic students mean internal beliefs were 28.51 +/- 3.7 influential persons 20.89 +/- 4.9 and chance 14.67 +/- 3.7 corresponding to 27.87 +/- 4.6 21.64 +/- 4.97 and 15.48 +/- 4.64 in non-athletics respectively; the differences were however not significant. But the self-esteem scores of athletics [31.2] were significantly higher than that of non-athletics