• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.364-371
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to estimate usage of vitamin and mineral supplements as over-the-counter (VM-OTC) drugs as well as examine factors associated with VM-OTC usage in Korean adolescents. A total of 1,407 adolescents attending middle or high school in all parts of country were included in the analysis. Prevalence of VM-OTC usage was 56.1%, and it was higher as monthly income, father's education level, and socioeconomic status of family increased (p<0.001). VM-OTC intake was higher in middle school students than in high school students as well as in rural areas or small & mediumsized city residents than big city residents (p<0.01). Subjects mainly received information on VM-OTC mainly from 'family and relatives' (46.6%), whereas only 20.3% received information from experts. Subjects took VM-OTC 'when they are healthy' (49.1%), 'when they feel sick' (17.7%), 'when they are on a diet' (17.3%), and 'when they are stressful' (15.9%). The effectiveness of taking VM-OTC were mainly 'fatigue recovery' (35.0%), 'health improvement' (30.6%), and 'nutritional status improvement' (13.2%). The most frequently used VM-OTC was vitamin C (49.1%), multi-vitamins (18.6%), multi vitamins & minerals (13.2%), and calcium (9.2%). Among VM-OTC users, only 21.9% replied that they usually check the nutrition facts when they buy products, 62.4% follow the recommended dosage, and 9.7% fully understand the nutrition labels of the products. According to logistic regression analysis, the most influential factor affecting VM-OTC use was parents' and siblings' VM-OTC consumption (p<0.001). In addition, school type (middle or high school) (p<0.01), residence (p<0.05), self-concerns about health (p<0.05), father's education level (p<0.05), and socioeconomic status of family (p<0.05) all influenced VM-OTC use. These results show that VM-OTC use is widespread among adolescents, few users actually check and fully understand the nutrition labels when they purchase VM-OTC, and they are highly dependent on unprofessional advice and information. Therefore, it is necessary to educate adolescents to help them select proper VM-OTC and read nutrition labels.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.414-429
• /
• 1990

Numerous research reports have substantiated the role of stressful life events in relation to the onset of health changes. The relationship tends to hold across different age groups. Theoretically, adolescence has been considered a developmental crisis period of great stress, impoverished coping skills and high vulnerability to biological, social and psychological demands. The research problem addressed by this study was to examine the relationships between stressful life events and health symptom patterns, and the effect of two variables, coping and social, support, theoretically considered to mediate the relationship between stress and health symptoms in adolescents. The following five hypotheses were tested in this research : 1. Health symptoms are positively related to stressful life events in adolescents, 2. Health symptoms are negatively related to coping in adolescents, 3. Health symptoms are negatively related to social support in adolescents, 4. When coping is controlled, the relationship between health symptoms and stressful life events will decrease, and 5. When social support is controlled, the relationship between health symptoms and stressful life events will increase. The study subjects consisted of 1090 high school students of the metropolitan city of Seoul. The following sampling procedure was used : 1. Of the 169 high schools in nine school administrative districts in the city, a proportional sample of ten schools was selected. 2. One class from each of the freshman and sophomore was randomly selected and all the students who were in the sampled class were used as the study sample. The study was limited to freshman and sophomore adolescents, aged 15 to 18(mean＝16.6). Of the 1090 subjects 688(63%) were boys and 402(37%) were girls. An Adolescent Inventory of Stressful Life Events, a Health Symptom Questionnaire and an Adolescent Coping Inventory were adapted for this study. The Norbeck Social Support questionnaire was utilized to collect the data on perceived social support. Five high school teachers in the areas of school health and counselling reviewed the items of each questionnaire for content validity. A pilot study was undertaken to ascertain reliability. Fifty three high school students responded to the questionnaires and gave their opinions on the items. For stressful life events, health symptoms, coping, and social support, the Cronbach's alpha's on the study were .70, .94, .77, and .76, respectively. Research assistants attended all the sampled classes with the school proctor to explain the purpose and procedures of the study to the students. The questionnaires along with a ballpoint pen were distributed to the students who were asked to complete each item. The research assistants left the ballpoint pen with the students as a gift for their cooperation. An average of 50 minutes was required to complete the questionnaires. Using an SPSS, the first, three hypotheses were tested using Gamma, a measure of association for ordinal variables. Partial gamma was used to test the fourth and fifth hypotheses. Patterns of elaboration described by Babbie were selected to interpret the relationship of the three variable analyses. The significance of gamma was determined by Chisquare at a .05 level of significance. There was a positive relationship between health symptoms and stressful life events(Gamma＝.35, p＝.000). Thus the first hypothesis was supported. Unexpectedly, coping was positively related with health symptoms(Gamma＝.13, p＝.000). That is, the higher the coping levels, the greater number of health problems. The third hypothesis, the higher the level of social support, the fewer the health symptoms, was not accepted in this adolescent study group. When coping was controlled, under the condition of low coping the association between health symptoms and stressful life events increased significantly to a partial gamma of .39, and under the condition of high coping it was .30. According to the elaboration model, when one partial relationship is the same or greater than the original and the other is smaller, the control variable should be considered to be specifying the conditions. When social support was controlled the relationship between stressful life events and health symptoms increased under the condition of low social support, but with high social support, the relationship decreased. Both partial gamma were statistically significant at .05 level(.43 and .26 relatively). It can be interpreted that stressful life events are strongly and positively related to health symptoms under the condition of low social support, however this relationship can not be expected with high social support. Thus, the last two hypotheses were conditionally sustained. In this study, the relationships between stressful life events and health symptoms, and the specified me diating roles of coping and social support were found to have statistical interaction. This finding supports the theoretical position of this study. It suggests that stressful life events would create high susceptability to biological social and psychological health symptoms and coping and social support buffering the relationship between stressful life events and health symptom. The findings of this study have implications for nursing practice. When adolescents are confronted with non-developmental life events that are perceived as stressful, nurses should recognize the evidence of the stress-buffering effect of coping and social support on health symptoms and utilize the diverse sources of social support that are readily available to adolescents.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.55 no.5
• /
• pp.455-463
• /
• 2022

Objectives: Economic hardship has a serious impact on adolescents' mental health. The financial impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was more severe for low-income families, and this also impacted adolescents. This study aimed to examine the associations of economic deterioration (ED) caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and low socioeconomic status (SES) with adolescents' suicidal behaviors. Methods: This study analyzed data from the 2020 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey, which included 54 948 middle and high school students. Odds ratios (ORs) of suicidal ideation, suicidal planning, and suicide attempts related to ED and SES were calculated using multivariable logistic regression. We calculated relative excess risks due to interaction to assess additive interactions. Results: The ORs for suicidal ideation, suicidal planning, and suicide attempts related to combined severe ED and low SES were 3.64 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.13 to 4.23), 3.88 (95% CI, 3.09 to 4.88), and 4.27 (95% CI, 3.21 to 5.69), respectively. Conclusions: ED and low SES were significantly associated with suicidal behaviors in adolescents. Although no significant additive interaction was found, the ORs related to suicidal ideation, suicidal planning, and suicide attempts were highest among adolescents from low-income families with severe ED. Special attention is needed for this group, considering the increased impact of economic inequality due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.5-16
• /
• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating role of cultural values in the associations between autonomy and relatedness satisfaction of adolescents on their psychological well-being Methods: A total of 506 high school students(M age = 16.2) in Korea completed self-reported measures of needs satisfaction, psychological well-being, and cultural values, and data were analyzed by Pearson's correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Results: The results were as follows: First, both autonomy and relatedness satisfaction were positively related to adolescents' well-being. Second, Collectivistic-Individualistic value moderated the associations. Especially, only for collectivism oriented adolescents, the positive effect of autonomy satisfaction on psychological well-being was significant when their relatedness satisfaction was high. Conclusion: The findings suggest the importance of both autonomy and relatedness satisfaction in predicting psychological well-being of adolescents and underscore the moderating role of cultural values.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.218-224
• /
• 2004

This study was conducted to explain adolescents' smoking behavior using Health Belief Model. A cross-sectional study design was used to analyze characteristics and factors that influence smoking behavior among Korean adolescents. A total of 1.535 adolescents attending 21 high schools in one district of Seoul participated in the study. The results indicated that perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers were significant in predicting smoking behavior of adolescents. Likewise, the degree of juvenile delinquency, gender, the amount of pocket money, and having smoking parent(s) and friend(s) significantly affect smoking behavior of adolescents. Based on the study results, it is recommended to incorporate HBM components in smoking cessation programs, and to include parents and friends in smoking prevention and cessation programs for high school students in Korea.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.24 no.1 s.79
• /
• pp.31-41
• /
• 2006

This study was to investigate differences in peer attachment, emotion regulation style and depression perceived by adolescents according to age and gender of adolescents. Also, aim that identifies variables which have influences on adolescents' depression. The subjects were 2279 middle and high school students(male 1150, female 1129) who live in Seoul and Kyonggi. All respondents answered by self-report questionnaire. The scales of emotion regulation style consist of three parts: support-seeking, avoidance/distraction, and active problem-solving. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA, t-tset and stepwise multiple regression. The major findings were as follows. First, older male and female adolescents perceived less peer attachment than younger adolescents. Specially female adolescents showed more differences between older adolescents and younger adolescents. Second, male adolescents showed more avoidance/distraction style and active problem-solving style but less support-seeking style than female adolescents. Third, older adolescents perceived more depression than younger adolescents. Fourth, peer attachment, age, avoidance/distraction style, active problem-solving style, support-seeking style and gender had a significant effect on adolescents' depression. In other words, adolescents who had more avoidance/distraction style and support-seeking style, who had less peer attachment and active problem-solving style, who had more avoidance/distraction style and support-seeking style, who had less peer attachment and active problem-solving style, who was older adolescents than younger adolescents, and who was female adolescents than male adolescents perceived more depression. The study results suggest that the degree of peer attachment was the most powerful predictor of adolescents' depression.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.113-123
• /
• 2021

This study aimed to examine the association between sleep duration, stress levels, and dietary behavior in adolescents. A survey was conducted on 453 students (227 male, 226 female) in high schools in the Chungbuk area. The participants were divided into groups based on daily sleep duration: group I (<5 hrs/d), group II (≥5 hrs/d and <6 hrs/d), group III (≥6 hrs/d and <7 hrs/d), and group IV (≥7 hrs/d). To measure the stress levels of participants, the survey had questions covering a variety of areas, including school life, family life, social relationships, and personal evaluation. To assess the dietary behaviors of participants, the survey included questions encompassing the Nutrition Quotient for Korean adolescents (NQ-A). Among female students, the sleep duration group IV had significantly lower total stress (P=0.022) and significantly lower stress in the personal evaluation area than the sleep duration group I (P=0.004). In the analysis of NQ-A, among female students, the sleep duration group IV showed significantly higher scores in balance (P=0.004), diversity (P=0.016), and total NQ-A score area (P=0.007) compared to other groups. There was a significant negative correlation between sleep duration and stress scores in total students (r=-0.24, P<0.001), while a significant positive correlation was seen between sleep duration and NQ-A scores in female students (r=0.16, P<0.05). To sum up, the longer the sleep duration, the lower the degree of stress, and the quality of meals which can be said to be a significant finding for high school students.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.173-180
• /
• 2008

The purposes of this study are to investigate what star marketing is and to examine whether star marketing influences clothing purchase behavior of adolescents or not. The concept and the instances of star marketing were reviewed and the characteristics and clothing behavior of adolescence were analyzed. The data were obtained from questionnaires completed by 341 middle and high school students and analyzed by frequency, t-test, chi-square test, cluster analysis, ANOVA, and Scheffe test. The Cronbach's alphas were calculated for the internal consistency. The results of the study are as follows. The sample was classified into three groups(high interest/high awareness group, high interest/low awareness group, and low interest/low awareness group) by the interest of TV watching and TV stars, the identification with TV stars, and the awareness and the interest of star marketing. There were significant differences in clothing purchase motives, the use of information sources, clothing buying places, clothing purchase frequency, and clothing expenditure among three groups.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.113-125
• /
• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a model for predicting mental health risk among adolescents based on health behavior information by employing a hybrid machine learning method. Methods: The study analyzed data of 51,850 domestic middle and high school students from 2022 Youth Health Behavior Survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Firstly, mental health risk levels (stress perception, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, suicide plans, experiences of sadness and despair, loneliness, and generalized anxiety disorder) were classified using the k-mean unsupervised learning technique. Secondly, demographic factors (family economic status, gender, age), academic performance, physical health (body mass index, moderate-intensity exercise, subjective health perception, oral health perception), daily life habits (sleep time, wake-up time, smartphone use time, difficulty recovering from fatigue), eating habits (consumption of high-caffeine drinks, sweet drinks, late-night snacks), violence victimization, and deviance (drinking, smoking experience) data were input to develop a random forest model predicting mental health risk, using logistic and XGBoosting. The model and its prediction performance were compared. Results: First, the subjects were classified into two mental health groups using k-mean unsupervised learning, with the high mental health risk group constituting 26.45% of the total sample (13,712 adolescents). This mental health risk group included most of the adolescents who had made suicide plans (95.1%) or attempted suicide (96.7%). Second, the predictive performance of the random forest model for classifying mental health risk groups significantly outperformed that of the reference model (AUC=.94). Predictors of high importance were 'difficulty recovering from daytime fatigue' and 'subjective health perception'. Conclusion: Based on an understanding of adolescent health behavior information, it is possible to predict the mental health risk levels of adolescents and make interventions in advance.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.46 no.6
• /
• pp.552-559
• /
• 2013

This study is conducted in order to investigate the prevalence of vitamin mineral (VM) supplement use and its related factors among Korean adolescents. Using a cross-sectional study design, information was obtained by questionnaires from adolescents selected by stratified sampling in large, small and middle-size cities, as well as rural areas of the whole country, followed by convenience sampling. The total number of participants in this study was 1,407 adolescents ($15.2{\pm}1.6$ years) attending middle or high schools, chosen from various cities and rural areas in Korea. The prevalence of VM supplement use was 65.5%, and there was no significant difference between the genders. City dwellers took VM supplements more frequently than those adolescents from rural areas (p < 0.01). The VM supplement users tended to have higher family income, parents' academic background, and socioeconomic status, respectively (p < 0.001). The greater part of VM supplement users replied that they acquired their nutritional information from their parents, relatives and friends, while many nonusers replied that they did it from school classes (p < 0.05). Compared to nonusers, VM supplement users had greater 'self concern about health' (p < 0.05), 'parents' concern about child's health, growth, and nutritional intake' (p < 0.001), and 'parents' concern about child's grade point' (p < 0.01). However, there was no significant difference between users and nonusers when it came to 'self perception of body shape' or 'BMI'. In addition, users significantly had greater nutritional beliefs concerning VM supplements than nonusers (p < 0.001). These results showed that VM supplement use has been common among adolescents in Korea, and supplement use of subjects has been related with various factors. Among them, it was shown that especially parents great influence the use of VM supplements by adolescents. Thus, not only education for adolescents, but also that for parents is needed to help adolescents take VM supplements properly.