Association of the personal factors of culture, attitude and motivation with health behavior among adolescents in Malaysia

• Main Authors: Hamzah, Siti Raba'ah, Suandi, Turiman, Ismail, Maimunah, Muda, Zulaiha
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Informa UK 2019
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/77543/1/Association%20of%20the%20personal%20factors%20of%20culture%2C%20attitude%20and%20motivation%20with%20health%20behavior%20among%20adolescents%20in%20Malaysia.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/77543/; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673843.2018.1482772

This study was undertaken to determine the association of the personal factors of culture, attitude and motivation on health behavior among Malaysian adolescents. A cluster sampling technique was used and a total of 1,029 students with ages ranging from 15 to 17 years (M age = 15.9, SD = .637) were selected as respondents. The research instrument was a self-administered questionnaire covering health behavior, culture, attitude, and motivation towards health. The strongest linear relationship was found between culture and health behavior (r = .618, p = .001). Besides the culture of adolescents being the main predictor of health behavior (β = .365, p = .000), attitude (β = .283, p = .000) and motivation (β = .064, p = .033) also had significant independent effects on health behavior. Hence, culture, attitude and motivation should be taken into consideration in the promotion of health education, especially at school level.