Study of parental and individual psychological protective factors influencing adolescents self-perceived health

Abstract

Self-perceived health gets an important role in investigating adolescents' health status that is closely connected with objective health status as well as with subjective well-being and the three dimensions of health (somatic, psychic and social). During adolescence, the psychosocial dimension particularly gets a great attention. The goal of the present study was to analyze adolescents' self-perceived health in relation to two groups of potential protective factors, namely, parental connection, social support from the parents, and individual psychological protective factors, such as satisfaction with life and optimism. The present study was going on among high school students in Szeged (aged between 15 and 20 years, N = 881). A self-administered questionnaire was used as a method of data collection which contained items on measuring self-perceived health as well as on detecting the role of individual psychological (satisfaction with life, optimism) and parental protective factors (social support from the parents, filial piety). Based on the data, we may conclude that those reported higher levels of life satisfaction and who were more optimistic evaluated their own health better. Likewise, parental social support and filial piety proved to be protective factors. Gender differences did not occur in the amount of protective factors. All in all, we conclude that both parental and individual psychological variables may act as a protection for adolescents' health status. These results suggest that it is necessary to involve mental health promotion and to strengthen interpersonal skills in prevention programs.