Gender Differences in Adolescent Health Concerns and Self-Assessed Health

Abstract

Gender has been shown to be an important variable in studies of health status and illness behaviors of adults. This study of 745 rural eight grade students examined gender differences in the reported health concerns, self-assessed health status, and illness behaviors of young adolescents. A 28-item health concern inventory was used to measure emotional, social, physical, and drug-related health concerns. For girls, emotional and social concerns were highly associated with poorer perceived health, while for boys, physical concerns differentiated those in fair or poor health from those who saw themselves as healthy. Physical concerns were significantly associated with reported school absenteeism due to illness, attendance of school when ill, and physician visits for both boys and girls. Emotional concerns were related to greater numbers of school days missed or days attended when ill for girls but not for boys.