Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Health behavior--Religious aspects--Chrisitianity; Health--Religious aspects--Chrisitianity; Academic theses;

Abstract

The relationships among meaning in life, religious orientation, Christian identity, health locus of control, and health promotion behaviors were assessed using 206 Christian students from a public university. Six areas of health promotion (physical activity, interpersonal relations, nutrition, health responsibility, spiritual growth, and stress management) were measured using the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II. Predictions included (1) intrinsic religiosity, meaning in life, Christian identity, internal health locus of control, and God control will be positively associated with health promoting behaviors; and (2) intrinsic religiosity and internal health locus of control will be positive predictors of health promoting behaviors. Meaning in life was positively correlated with all health promotion scales. Intrinsic religiosity was positively correlated with each subscale but stress management. Extrinsic-social was positively correlated with health responsibility. Extrinsic-personal was correlated with the overall health promoting behavior composite and interpersonal relations. Christian identity was positively correlated with the overall composite, spiritual growth, and interpersonal relations. God control was positively correlated with spiritual growth. Internal health locus of control was positively correlated with physical activity, nutrition, and the overall composite. Regression analyses were also conducted to determine unique relationships among this combination of measures. The results showed that health promotion was predicted by religion and meaning in life. These findings may provide clinicians with direction about how to understand their clients and help their clients deal with problems from a religious perspective.

Year of Submission

2005

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Psychology

First Advisor

Melvin E. Gonnerman

Second Advisor

Seth Brown

Third Advisor

Mickey Mack

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2005

Object Description

1 PDF file (80 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Psychology Commons

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