It is a well-known phenomenon that since the 1970s, there has been a growing difference in health status between populations in Eastern Europe and those in western countries. This phenomenon has been found to relate to unhealthy lifestyles. Individuals’ health behavior, as a part of their lifestyle, stems from an interplay between self and community; between individual traits and states, and community orientations. Theories of health psychology should play an important role in Eastern Europe’s public health. One of the biggest challenges in this process is the lack of people’s motivation rooted in the harmful psychological effects of the past socialist dictatorship in this region. There is a need for converting learned helplessness, often found in people because of the nature and collapse of the old regime, into learned optimism.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alonzo, A. A. (1993). Health behavior: Issues, contradictions and dilemmas . Social Science and Medicine, 37, 1019–1034 .
2.
Baum, F. (2000). Social capital, economic capital and power: Further issue for a public health agenda . Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 54, 409–410 .
3.
Biro, G. (1996). Cardiovascular risk factors distribution in Hungarian adults . Acta Cardiologica, 51, 113–128 .
4.
Bobak, M., & Marmot, M. (1996). East–West mortality divide and its potential explanation: Proposed research agenda . British Medical Journal, 312, 421–425 .
5.
Brummett, B. H., & Williams, R. B., Jr. (1998). Hostility and risk for disease . Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 11, 607–613 .
6.
Carey, M. P., Kalra, D. L., Carey, K. B., Halperin, S., & Richard, C. S. (1993). Stress and unaided smoking cessation: A prospective investigation . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 831–838 .
7.
Carlson, P. (1998). Self-perceived health in East and West Europe: Another European health divide . Social Science and Medicine, 46, 1355–1366 .
8.
Cockerham, W. C. (1999). Health and social change in Russia and Eastern Europe. New York & London: Routledge .
9.
Cole, D. C., Eyles, J., Gibson, B. L., & Ross, N. (1999). Links between human and ecosystems: The implications of framing for health promotion strategies . Health Promotion International, 14, 65–72 .
10.
Fahlberg, L. L., & Wolfer, J. (1994). Dichotomy or integration? A response to McLeroy . American Journal of Health Promotion, 8, 352-352 .
11.
Feachem, R. (1994). Health decline in Eastern Europe . Nature, 367, 313–314 .
12.
Fincham, S. (1992). Community health promotion programs . Social Science and Medicine, 35, 239–249 .
13.
Forster, D. P., & JÛzan, P. (1990). Health in Eastern Europe . Lancet, 335, 458–460 .
14.
Gibbons, F. X., & Buunk, B. P. (1999). Individual differences in social comparison: Development of a scale of social comparison orientation . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 129–142 .
15.
Gulens, V. (1995). Distortions in personality development in individuals emerging from a long-term totalitarian regime . Journal of Baltic Studies, 26, 267–284 .
16.
Gupta, N., & Jenkins, D. G., Jr. (1984). Substance use as an employee response to the work environment . Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 24, 84–93 .
17.
Health Education Unit. (1986). Life-styles and health . Social Science and Medicine, 22, 117–124 .
18.
Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. London: McGraw-Hill .
19.
Ishii-Kuntz, M. (1989). Collectivism or individualism? Changing patterns of Japanese attitudes . Sociology and Social Research, 73, 174–179 .
20.
Kaplun, A. (1992). Health promotion and chronic illness. Discovering a new quality of life. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Publications .
21.
Koelen, M. A., Vaandrager, L., & ColomÈr, C. (2001). Health promotion research: Dilemmas and challenges . Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55, 257–262 .
22.
Kopp, M., Skrabski, í., & Szedm·k, S. (2000). Psychosocial risk factors, inequlity and self-rated morbidity in a changing society . Social Science and Medicine, 51, 1350–1361 .
23.
Kopp, M., Szedm·k, S., & Loke, J. (1995). Results of National Representative Study. Budapest: Semmelweis University of Medicine, Institute of Behavioral Sciences .
24.
Laaksonen, M., McAlister, A. L., Laatikainen, T., Drygas, W., Morava, E., Nüssel, E., Oganov, R., Pardell, H., Uhanov, M., & Puska, P. (2001). Do health behaviour and psychosocial risk factors explain the European East–West gap in health status? European Journal of Public Health, 11, 65–73 .
25.
Leon, D. A., Chenet, L., Shkolnikov, V. M., Zakharov, S., Shapiro, J., Rakhmanova, G., Vassin, S., & McKee, M. (1997). Huge variation in Russian mortality rates 1984–94: Artefact, alcohol, or what? Lancet, 350, 383–388 .
26.
Lindy, J. D., & Jay Lifton, R. (2001). Beyond invisible walls. The psychological legacy of Soviet trauma. New York: Brunner-Routledge .
27.
Lingfors, H., Lindstrm, K., Persson, L.-G., Bengtsson, C., & Lissner, L. (2001). Evaluation of ‘Live for Life’, a health promotion programme in the County of Skaraborg, Sweden . Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55, 277–282 .
28.
Mackenbach, J. P. (1994). The epidemiologic transition theory . Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 48, 329–332 .
29.
Makara, P. (1994). Policy implications of differential health status in east and west Europe. The case of Hungary . Social Science and Medicine, 39, 1295–1302 .
30.
Marks, D. F. (1996). Health psychology in context . Journal of Health Psychology, 1, 7–21 .
31.
Ogden, J. (1995). Changing the subjects of health psychology . Psychology and Health, 10, 257–265 .
32.
Ogden, J. (1996). Health psychology. A textbook. Buckingham & Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press .
33.
Peterson, C. (2000). The future of optimism . American Psychologist, 55, 44–55 .
34.
Piko, B. (2000). Perceived social support from parents and peers: Which is the stronger predictor of adolescent substance use? Substance Use and Misuse, 35, 617–630 .
35.
Piko, B. (2001). Gender differences and similarities in adolescents’ ways of coping . Psychological Record, 51, 223–235 .
36.
Piko, B. F. (2002). Socio-cultural stress in modern societies and the myth of anxiety in Eastern Europe . Administration and Policy in Mental Health, 29, 275–280 .
37.
Piko, B., & Fitzpatrick, K. M. (2001a). Youth’s health risk behaviors in the light of their culture: Crosscultural comparison of US and Hungarian youth . Health Education, 42, 249–252 . (In Hungarian.)
38.
Piko, B., & Fitzpatrick, K. M. (2001b). Does class matter? SES and psychosocial health among Hungarian adolescents . Social Science and Medicine, 53, 817–830 .
39.
Puska, P. (1996). Smoking in Central and Eastern Europe. In M. Waller & S. Lipponen (Eds.), Smoke free Europe: A forum for networks(pp. 138–145). Helsinki: Finnish Centre for Health Promotion .
40.
R·cz, J. (1992). Drug use by the members of youth subcultures in Hungary . International Journal of Addictions, 27, 289–300 .
41.
Realo, A. (1998). Collectivism in an individualist culture: The case of Estonia . Trames, 2, 19–39 .
42.
Realo, A., & Allik, J. (1999). A cross-cultural study of collectivism: A comparison of American, Estonian, and Russian students . Journal of Social Psychology, 139, 133–142 .
43.
Sato, T., & Cameron, J. E. (1999). The relationship between collective self-esteem and self construal in Japan and Canada . Journal of Social Psychology, 139, 426–435 .
44.
Seligman, M. E. P. (in press). Positive psychology, positive prevention, and positive therapy. In C. R. Snyder & S. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology.
45.
Seligman, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction . American Psychologist, 55, 5–14 .
46.
Smith, P. B., Trompenaars, F., & Dugan, S. (1995). The Rotter Locus of Control Scale in 43 countries: A test of cultural relativity . International Journal of Psychology, 3, 377–400 .
47.
Stone, R. (2000). Stress: The invisible hand in Eastern Europe’s death rates . Science, 288, 1732–1733 .
48.
Theorell, T. (2001). Everyday biological stress mechanisms. Basel: Karger .
49.
Triandis, H. C. (1993). Collectivism and individualism as cultural syndromes . Cross-Cultural Research, 27, 155–180 .
50.
Vartiainen, E., Puska, P., Pekkanen, J., Tuomilehto, J., & Jousilahti, P. (1994). Changes in risk factors explain changes in mortality from ischaemic heart disease in Finland . British Medical Journal, 309, 23–27 .
51.
Varvasovszky, Z., & McKee, M. (1998). An analysis of alcohol policy in Hungary. Who is in charge? Addiction, 93, 1815–1827 .
52.
White, M., Boj·n, F., Watt, I., & McKee, M. (1993). Hungary: A new public health . Lancet, 341, 43–44 .
53.
Winnett, R. A. (1995). A framework for health promotion and disease prevention programs . American Psychologist, 50, 341–350 .
54.
World Health Organization. (1984). Health promotion: A WHO discussion on the concept and principles. Geneva: World Health Organization .
