Abstract
The purposes of this study were to identify (1) the characteristics of adolescents' of acquisition of health-related information, (2) the relationships between acquiring health-related information and the related factors, which were perceived health status, social support, and self-esteem, and (3) the relationships between obtaining health-related information and the outcomes which were health behaviors and social adjustment. A total of 615 students from the 5th grade of elementary school through the 3rd grade of senior high school completed a self-report questionnaire. The main results were as follows. 1) The adolescents most frequently obtained information about the risk of smoking/alcohol use (92.8%), and less frequently obtained information about constipation (32.7%). Adolescents most frequently desired obtaining information about healthy eating (82.8%) and less frequently about the physical and mental changes that occur during adolescence (65.9%). 2) The adolescents who received higher scores for information acquisition obtained higher scores for desiring obtaining information. 3) The most frequently adopted and desired health-related information resources were teacher, mother, and book. The older adolescents less frequently adopted and desired mother and more frequently adopted and desired friend and Internet as information resources than younger youth. 4) The adolescents who obtained higher scores for information acquisition and desiring obtaining information received higher total scores for social support and higher scores for support from parents, friends, or teachers. 5) The adolescents who received higher scores for information acquisition and desiring obtaining information more effectively prevented constipation. The adolescents who participated after completing a school activity obtained significantly higher scores for information acquisition than those who did not participate.
