Associations between family role model presence and health among adolescents
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2024-05-29 | 1 | 1 |
Prieskyros nenurodytos.
Background: Research on role model presence in adolescence is rarely researched, especially on scale. Even though social scientists agree that parents can and should act as exemplary people for their children, there is no research on how often family members are chosen as role models and no research on how it relates to adolescent health. Objectives. The goal of our study was to identify how many adolescents choose family members as their role models and how it relates to health of the adolescent.
Methods: In total, 6557 adolescents from grades 5–11 participated in the study (49% female). For health variables, subjective health, life satisfaction, happiness, and self-efficacy were assessed and dichotomised. Role model was assessed in two ways: presence (yes/no), and category (e. g. family member, friend, teacher, etc.). Role model variable was dichotomised (has a family member as a role model or does not). Binary logistics were performed to find associations between family member as a role model presence and health.
Results: 33.1% of adolescents identified family member as a role model. These adolescents were more likely to have excellent or good subjective health (OR=1.42), high life satisfaction (OR=2.04), be happy (OR=1.60), and have medium or high self-efficacy (OR=1.17) (age, family-affluence, and gender adjusted).
Conclusions: Having a family member as a role model was associated with better subjective health for adolescents, which suggests that role model presence in the closest environment may have the greatest benefits for adolescent well-being."