Lifestyle behaviors of adolescents: Relationship of self-efficacy, optimism, unrealistic optimism and selected demographic variables to the lifestyle behaviors.

This study examined the lifestyle behaviors of 629 adolescents in northern British Columbia and the relationship of selected demographic variables, as well as, the psychosocial variables of self-efficacy, optimism and unrealistic optimism to a health-promoting lifestyle. Analyses indicated that physical participation had a significant relation to gender, living arrangements, school location and risk status. General health practices awareness had a significant relation to gender, living arrangements and ethno-cultural group. Safety had a significant relation to gender, ethno-cultural group and risk status. Nutrition, social support and stress management had a significant relation to gender. Nutrition, physical participation, general health practices awareness and safety were significantly negatively correlated to age. Physical participation, social support, stress management, identity awareness, and safety were significantly positively correlated to grade average and parent education. Hierarchical regressionanalyses indicated that demographic and psychosocial variables made a statistically significant contribution to predicting a health-promoting lifestyle. These findings are discussed in relation to efforts to enhance health-promoting behaviors in adolescents.