PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDINAL CORRELATES OF HEALTHY AND UNHEALTHY LIFE-STYLES IN YOUNG-ADULTS

The relationship between healthy lifestyle and personality and attitud inal variables was analyzed with data collected from 809 men and 996 w omen aged 18-30 years in England, Belgium, Finland and Norway as part of the European Health and Behaviour Survey. A health practices index was constructed on the basis of performance of sixteen behaviours incl uding smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, sleep time and a variety of dietary and preventive practices. Scores on the health practices i ndex were higher in women than men, but in both sexes the index was no rmally distributed. Consistently healthy practices were positively cor related with extraversion and optimism, and negatively associated with neuroticism, psychoticism and chance locus of control beliefs. These effects were maintained after controlling for social desirability, but together accounted for only a modest proportion of the variance in th e health practices index. The results are discussed in relation to the factors characterising health conscious and unhealthy lifestyles.