Dispositional Optimism and Defensive Pessimism as Predictors of Health-related Behaviour in Czech Adults

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Authors

DOSEDLOVÁ Jaroslava JELÍNEK Martin KLIMUSOVÁ Helena BUREŠOVÁ Iva

Year of publication 2016
Type Conference abstract
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Description A higher rate of optimism is connected to a higher activity in general and specifically in the relationship to one’s own health (Ylöstalo, 2003; Giltay, 2007; Posadzki, 2010). The main aim of our study is to express the dependency of components of health-related behaviour on variables dispositional optimism and defensive pessimism and to verify intergenerational differences in these relationships in 4 cohorts of Czech adults (N=1252). The questionnaires LOT-R, DPQ and Health-related Behavior Scale were completed. Five factors explaining 45,6% of the total variance of 32 items of health-related behavior were as follows: healthy food, mental hygiene, regular daily regimen, physical activity, and avoiding addictive/harmful substances. Defensive pessimism was not related to any of the factors. Dispositional optimism was found to be a significant predictor of mental hygiene (beta = 0,56) only. These results show that the link between optimism and health-related behaviour could be culturally conditioned.
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