Health locus of control as correlate of health promoting behaviors

Pages: 580-584
Sangeeta, Shobhana and Sandeep Singh Rana (Department of Applied Psychology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar, Haryana)

The purpose of the present study entitled ‘health locus of control as correlate of health promoting behaviors’ is to analyze how health locus of control affects the health promoting behaviors across both the genders. The present study was conducted on a sample of 200 college students (100 male and 100 female) having age range of 18 to 25 years. Multidimensional health locus of control scale by Kenneth Wallston et al. (1978) and health promoting life style profile II by Walker et al. (1987) were used to assess the health locus of control and health promoting behaviors. Significant gender differences have been observed on health promoting behaviors, nutrition, and powerful others. It has been observed in the findings that internal health locus of control health has significant and positive correlation with health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations and stress management. The findings depict that the people having internal health locus of control take more responsibility for their health. It was also found in the study that person who scored high on chance, one of the dimension of health locus of control have poor health habits because they depend only on chance and luck factors.