HEALTH PROMOTION IN CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE - APPROACHES TO EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS

Several previous studies showed no systematic relationships between health-related knowledge and health related behavior. The present study tries to identify variables with stronger relations to health related behaviors. Knowledge of relevant variables can be regarded as basic information to construct health promoting interventions. The theoretical considerations of this study are based upon a body-concept construct and lead to the inference of potentially relevant concept components (body-knowledge, body-perception, body-evaluation) which were operationalized by questionnaire scales. The questionnaire scales were given to 513 children, adolescents, and adults aged between 12 and 26 years. The results replicate the small significance of knowledge related concept components to conduct health related behavior. Higher proportions of explained variance could be achieved by the perceptual and evaluative components of the body concept. The proportions of explained variance increased over age. The results are discussed with regard to consequences for the construction of health promotion programs.