Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was to investigate family functioning, self-concept and health promotion behavior of elementary school students and to find out the correlation among these variables.
METHOD
The subjects were 277 students who participated voluntarily in the questionnaire. The instrument used in this study was family APGAR, self-concept and health promotion behavior tool. The data were collected from May 18th to 21st, 2004 with a self-administered questionnaire, using frequency, percentage, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS 10.0 win.
RESULTS
1) The mean score of health promotion behavior by general characteristics was significant in educational status of mother (F=5.352, p=0.005), living standard (F=9.646, p=0.000) and perceived health status (F=8.349, p=0.000). 2) The mean score of family functioning was 3.57 (5 point scale), self-concept was 3.47 (5 point scale) and health promotion behavior was 3.67 (5 point scale). 3) In the relationship between family functioning and self-concept was correlated (r=.547), family functioning and health promotion behavior was correlated (r=.518) and self-concept and health promotion behavior was correlated (r=.670). 4) The most influencing variable was self-concept, accounting for 43% in stepwise multiple regression. A combination of self-concept, family functioning and perceived health status explained 47% of the variance for health promoting behavior.
CONCLUSION
Considering the results above, we can recognize that there are close relations among the family functioning, self-concept and health promotion behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to elevate the level of self-concept and family functioning in order to get health promotion behavior of the elementary school students.