Influence of Rural and Urban Environments on the Health Outlook of Twelfth Grade Students in Jordan

Abstract

Using a sample of 312 grade twelve male and female students from rural and urban area schools in Jordan, the influence of rural and urban sociological environments on their health outlook was explored. The concept HEALTH was evaluatd on sixteen Semantic Differential scales. MANOVA and univariate F-tests revealed different effects of rural and urban environments on each gender. There were statistically significant ( p < .00) sex differences in the urban school students but not in the rural school students. Also there were statistically significant ( p < .03) environmental effects on the female students but not on the male students. In general urban female students held brighter perspectives of health than did urban male as well as rural female students. Between the males, rural students tended to show sunnier outlook toward health than did their urban cohorts but the differences were not statistically significant at alfa = .05 level. Implications for the development of health education curricula and public health programs were discussed.