Attitudes toward health and illness. A comparison of adolescent, physician, teacher, and school nurse views

Abstract

To assist physicians, teachers, and school nurses in meeting adolescent health needs, 240 members of these three professional groups and 600 middle school students answered a self-administered questionnaire to assess student attitudes towards health and illness. chi 2 Analyses were employed to determine if response patterns varied as a function of the group. Incongruencies (p less than 0.05) were noted between students' and professionals' responses to all questions. Adolescents attributed more importance to their health, showed a better personal health status, expressed more worry about personal health and becoming sick and more concern about being sick, showed more feelings of responsibility for their health, and exhibited less frequent practice of harmful behaviors than adults anticipated that the students would report. Adults differed in their perceptions of the students' reported health status and the frequency of student worry about personal health and being sick. Findings are discussed in relation to the provision of more meaningful, comprehensive, multidisciplinary approaches to meeting adolescent health care needs and concerns.