J Korean Community Nurs.  1996 Jun;7(1):52-68.

Value of Health, Multidimensonal Health Locus of Control and Level of Self-esteem in Low Income Mothers

• Lee KO
• Yang SO

Abstract

As a product of poverty, health means the physical, mental and social instability caused by poverty. High mortality, high morbidity, and unsatisfied needs for medical care indicate the health condition of poor people. These indicators are related to the social and psychological property. This study is to develop an effective method of nursing in the poor family which is an essential unit in the nursing field of the community and to which a fundamental approach is need as a top priority. We can make such a study, though partially, by revealing the relationship among the Health-value, Health Locus of Contol, and the Level of Self esteem. We randomly sampled 243 women who are participating in the nursing department of the comnnity nursing centers in Seoul. We investigated by using questionaries and made an analysis on the result by SAS program. The result of this investigation can summarized as follows : 1. The average age of the subjects investigated is 43.4 and the participation rate in the economic activity is as high as 49.4%. Most of them are paid daily. The average members of the family are 4.28 persons, and 80.2% of which are nuclear families. The type of housing is as follows:51.4% are monthly-rent houses. Rent houses represent 23.5%. And 43.6% of the subjects graduate the high schools 2. The level of self-esteem possessed by the subjects is 37.17. The quality of task performance(3.46) and the morality(3.53) are low as compared with the other qualities. 3. In relation to the locus of control, internality is 22.39, the influence of powerrful others represents 20.24, and the effect of chance occurance is 16.41. 4. The orderings of value scale are the physical and mental health, comfortable life, happiness, mental peace, and pleasure. The lowest order is social recognition. 5. Considering in relation to the self-esteem and the locus of control, we found out that there is a negative relationship among the self-esteem, the influence of powerful others. The lower the level of self-esteem is, the higher the influence of powerful others is. There is also a negative relationship among the detailed items such as the qualities, and the positive attitude. 6. In a significant test in the general characters of the subjects and in the level of self-esteem, we can obtain the follwing results. The higher the economic level is, the higher the level of self-esteem is. And the higher the level of satisfaction with life is, the higher the level of self-esteem is. 7. In the locus of control, the higher the economic level is, the higher the internality is. 8. In the health-level, 75.72% represent the high health -level. And the group which has the low satisfaction with life represents the high level of health-value(81.6%). With these results, we can conclude that the level of self-esteem possessed by the poor women living in the city is high and that they have the multi-dimemsional health-value even though they are living in the poor condtions. Traditionally, the poverty has been recognized as an unfavorale factor in the health care. But this study shows that the poverty is no longer an unfavorale factor and, on the contrary, it has a potential power with which people can improve their health by possessing the high self-esteem and the high health value. The ultimate purpose which the nursing task of the community has is to make the patients keep and improve their own health. So, when the nurses approach the poor patients, the nurses should put an emphasis on the individual responsibilities of the patients, and respect their own health value.

MeSH Terms

Delivery of Health Care
Female
Happiness
Housing
Humans
Internal-External Control*
Mental Health
Mortality
Mothers*
Nuclear Family
Nursing
Pleasure
Poverty
Self Concept
Seoul