Young students’ health attitudes

Abstract

Problem statement.Students’ attitude towards their health is a complex social phenomenon that remains understudied and requires additional research. Specifically, research is needed to identify the factors resulting in positive attitudes towards health among students. Purpose. The article is aimed at studying the indices that specify students’ attitude to their health. Approach. This study was conducted as a part of the international research project ‘Students’ Health’.The full sample included 840 students. To study indices specifying students’ attitude to their health, we used sociological and instructional monitoring thatunderstood as the methods of collecting, storing, processing and distributing information about instructional systems and social infrastructure. Results.We found out that observed differences in students’ physical activity level were related to their health self-assessment, type of health behaviour and value-oriented attitudes towards health.There are two conditionally distinguished types of students’ responsibility for their health and, correspondingly, two types of health behaviour. The first type is associated primarily with ‘one’s own striving’, that is, purposeful activity oriented to the maintenance and promotion of health. The second type of behaviour is associated primarily with ‘living conditions’ where one’s personal activity has a minor part. Conclusions. Based onour analysis, we suggest that modern youth are likely to have an unmet need to take care of their health. Many students demonstrate low levels of health culture, considerably low levels of medical awareness and of the ways to maintain health.