Contribution of Psychosocial Factors in Unhealthy Dietary Behaviour Amongst Adolescents of Patiala, Punjab

Health risk-taking behaviour has been associated with health damaging behaviours such as unintentional injuries, violence, bullying, alcohol use, smoking, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviours etc. The present study aims to identify the predominant health risk-taking behaviour among adolescents and to examine the contribution of psychosocial variables in that specific domain. The sample of the study comprised of 500 adolescents (224 boys and 276 girls) in the age range of 15 to 18 years enrolled in 11th and 12th grade in the Humanities stream. Data was drawn randomly from different senior secondary schools in Patiala, Punjab. Questionnaires comprising Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System (YRBSS) and Resiliency scales for children and adolescent (RSCA), Trait emotional intelligence questionnaire (TEIQue-ASF), Parent as a Social context questionnaire (PSCQ) and Friendship self regulation questionnaire (FSRQ) were used. Results revealed that unhealthy dietary behaviour (27%) was found to be present as predominant health damaging behaviour. This study also found sociability, introjected regulation, sense of relatedness, identified regulation, coercion, emotional reactivity, intrinsic motivation, emotionality and selfcontrol to be significant predictors of unhealthy dietary behaviour.