title: The health locus of control and the relationship with the demographic characteristics of children from an elementary school of Kaohsiung City.
abstract: In this study, we attempted to more thoroughly understand the health locus of control and the relationship with the demographic characteristics to elementary school children in Taiwan. A structured questionnaire included items regarding: (1) individual and family characteristics; and (2) children's Health Locus of Control (CHLC) scale was administered to 732 children in an elementary school of Kaohisung City. Based on the results, we can conclude the following: (1) factor analysis revealed three factors with acceptable reliability. The three subscales were Chance, Internal and Powerful Others; (2) different sex, grade, position in birth order, patenal educational level, maternal educational level and socioeconomic status differed in overall CHLC scores significantly, but different family types did not significantly differ in overall CHLC scores; and (3) number of children and family size negatively correlated with overall CHLC scores. Results in this study can assist health care professionals in providing different interventions for elementary school children with different individual or family characteristics.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical College, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male