Optimism and Health-related Behavior of Czech University Students and Adults

DOSEDLOVÁ, Jaroslava, Helena KLIMUSOVÁ, Iva BUREŠOVÁ, Martin JELÍNEK, Alena SLEZÁČKOVÁ and Lubomír VAŠINA. Optimism and Health-related Behavior of Czech University Students and Adults. In ICEEPSY The International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology, Kyrenia, Cyprus, 22-25 October 2014. 2014.

Basic information

• Original name: Optimism and Health-related Behavior of Czech University Students and Adults
• Name in Czech: Optimismus a chování související se zdravím českých univerzitních studentů a dospělých
• Authors: DOSEDLOVÁ, Jaroslava (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Helena KLIMUSOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Iva BUREŠOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Martin JELÍNEK (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Alena SLEZÁČKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution) and Lubomír VAŠINA (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: ICEEPSY The International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology, Kyrenia, Cyprus, 22-25 October 2014, 2014.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50100 5.1 Psychology and cognitive sciences
• Country of publisher: Turkey
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14210/14:00074287
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: optimism; pessimism; healt-related behavior; subjective health problems
• Tags: rivok
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

The exploratory study, conducted as a part of a research project supported by the Czech Science Foundation (No. 13-19808S), attempted to shed more light on the interrelations between dispositional optimism/pessimism, explanatory style optimism/pessimism, defensive pessimism/strategic optimism, and health-related behaviour. The main objective was to test whether findings obtained on American population and several European samples concerning positive relationships between optimism and health-related activity, and between pessimism and passivity, can be replicated on a Czech sample. The analysis of data from 268 respondents aged between 16 and 96 did not confirm any significant associations between different types of optimism/pessimism and health behaviours except for one: Promotion of mental well-being was predicted by defensive pessimism and by optimistic explanatory style, especially the stability dimension. The study also addresses the complex interrelations between different optimism/pessimism constructs, health-related behaviour, and subjective health problems.

Links

• GA13-19808S, research and development project: Name: Chování zdraví podporující a zdraví ohrožující: determinanty, modely a konsekvence

Investor: Czech Science Foundation