Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between social support and health behavior in girl high school students in all girl schools. The subjects were 190 girls in 2 Kunsan schools. The instruments used for this study were the social support scale developed by Park(1985) and the health behavior scale developed by Walker etc(1987). As modified by Lee & Han(1996). The data were analysed by correlation coefficient, regression coefficient using an SAS program. The results of this study were as follows: 1. The mean score of social support was 3.96 and the mean score of health behavior was 3.33. 2. 1) General characteristics were related to the degree of social support: personality, spending money, friend number, exercise(p<0.05). 2) General characteristics were related to the degree of health behavior: personality, spending money, friend number, exercise, stress(p<0.05). 3. The hypothesis of this study, "The higher the degree of social support perceived by the student, the higher the degree of health behavior" was supported(r=0.5730, p=0.0001). For these subjects, there was a significant relationship between social support and the degree of health behavior. Nurses should plan interventions in promotion health behavior with social support as a significant factor in adolescents. If so, their coping ability and well-being may be promoted.