Determination of the relationship between irrational beliefs and the level of HEALTHY nutrition and physical activity self-efficacy in adolescents

The research is a descriptive, relationship-seeking, quantitative type of research conducted to examine the relationship between irrational beliefs and healthy nutrition and physical activity self-efficacy levels in adolescents. Sociodemographic Information Form, Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Self-Efficacy Scale for Children, Irrational Beliefs Scale for Adolescents, Physical Activity Questionnaire for Primary School Students were used as data collection tools in the research. The research sample consists of 387 secondary school students studying at Ankara Pursaklar Feride Bekçioğlu Secondary School and Şehit Ali İhsan Lezgi Secondary School, between 15 May 2022 and 15 June 2022. Independent Sample-t test, ANOVA test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, Bonferroni correction, Spearman correlation coefficient and Binary Logistic Regression: Backward LR tests were used in the statistical analysis of the study. As the students Irrational Beliefs for Adolescents scale and its subscale Comfort demand scores increased, the scores of the Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Efficacy for Childrenscale decreased. The students with more irrational beliefs had less healthy eating and physical activity self-efficacy levels found to have. When the physical activity score of the students is examined; It was determined that 19 students (4.9%) were inactive (sendanter), 129 (33.4%) were low level, 175 (45.2%) moderately active and 64 (16.5%) active. Having COVID-19 infection was found to be an important variable affecting inactive physical activity status (p<0.05). The research contributes to the importance of rational emotive thinking in school health nursing education by examining the relationship between irrational beliefs and healthy nutrition and physical activity self-efficacy levels in adolescents.