The Social Psychology of Tanning and Sunscreen Use: Self-Presentational Motives as a Predictor of Health Risk1

To the extent that many people seek and maintain a suntan because they believe it makes them more attractive, people who are particularly motivated to make good impressions on others or to be seen as physically attractive are at increased risk for skin cancer. This study examined cognitive, motivational, and attitudinal predictors of two factors that are associated with increased risk for skin cancer: engaging in behaviors that increase one's exposure to UV radiation and inadequate use of sunscreen. Self-presentational motives involving a concern for one's personal appearance and the belief that being tan enhances one's attractiveness were the strongest predictors of the degree to which respondents exposed themselves to natural and artificial sources of UV radiation. Sunscreen use was best predicted by knowing someone with skin cancer. Implications for attempts to promote safe-sun practices are discussed.     

“Decoding MH”—A de-stigmatization campaign in the Hong Kong Police Force

Police officers are under high level of stress given the intense and emergent work nature. If left untreated, their mental wellbeing would be at risk and work performance compromised. However, mental health stigma is common among police officers and is perpetuated by factors like police cultures emphasizing toughness and self-reliance. In view of this, since 2016, the Hong Kong Police Force had launched a holistic campaign for Force members which was the first among law enforcement organizations in Hong Kong, aiming to reduce stigma, by enhancing mental health knowledge and decreasing negative attitudes and behaviors towards mental health issues. The programme incorporated standardised trainings of the Mental Health First Aid course with examples modified to the local police context, and psychoeducation via the use of digital medium and sharing by public figures. Positive feedback was received. It was foreseen that the campaign effects would increase Force members' awareness of their mental health, encourage help-seeking and facilitate officers' decision making when encountering crises in the community.     

Interventions to Promote Sun Protection Behaviors: What Do We Know About the Efficacy of Health‐ and Appearance‐based Messages and the Role of Cognitions and Emotions?

Human behavior has been implicated as a critical component in the development of a number of diseases, including skin cancer. More than 85% of all skin cancers are attributed to over‐exposure to the sun, and two primary types of interventions have been utilized to motivate sun protection practices – those that focus on the health consequences (i.e., skin cancer) and those that highlight the negative appearance consequences (i.e., wrinkles and age spots) of sun exposure. Both health‐based and appearance‐based interventions have been demonstrated to increase awareness of sun exposure dangers and of recommended risk reduction behaviors. Much of the literature examining the efficacy of appearance‐based interventions also contains evidence of behavior change in response to such interventions. The role of consciously accessible attitudes and perceptions as mechanisms of behavior change has been extensively examined, and there is evidence that sun protection interventions may promote behavior change in part by altering various health‐related cognitions (e.g., perceived susceptibility to skin damage). However, the role of nonconscious mechanisms in the efficacy of sun protection interventions has received little empirical attention. A growing body of literature, primarily in other health contexts, has demonstrated that behavior is sometimes more strongly predicted by emotions than cognitions, and that processes outside of conscious awareness may affect behavior change. It is suggested that both future sun protection interventions, and health promotion theories in general, could benefit from a thorough examination of the role that emotions and autonomic reactions may play in intervention efficacy.     

How optimists face skin cancer information: Risk assessment,attention, memory,and behavior

The purpose of the present study was to investigate how optimists process health-related information. Sixty-five young adults (ages 18–35) reported skin cancer-related knowledge and behaviors, and read slides of information on skin and skin cancer. Visual attention to the slides was recorded using eye tracking, and their memory for the information was measured. Additionally, participants’ self-reported skin cancer-relevant behavior was assessed prospectively in the months following the lab component of the study. Results show that individuals low in dispositional optimism or high in health-related optimism paid more attention when they were at high objective risk of developing skin cancer; and individuals high in dispositional optimism or high in health-related optimism were more likely to perform adaptive, health-promoting behaviors. In addition, optimistic beliefs were found not to be related with unrealistic optimism. Dispositional and health-related optimism therefore appear to predict health-related cognition and behavior in distinct ways.     

A psychosocial model of sun protection and sunbathing in young women: the impact of health beliefs, attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy for sun protection.

A psychosocial model of sun protection and sunbathing as distinct behaviors was developed on 202 young Caucasian women and replicated in an independent sample (n = 207). Proximal outcomes were intention to sun protect and intention to sunbathe; distal outcomes included sun protection and sunbathing behavior measured 5 months later. Objective risk for skin cancer plus 4 classes of psychosocial variables (sun-protective health beliefs, self-efficacy for sun protection, attitudes toward sunbathing, and norms for sunbathing and sun protection) served as predictors. Sun-protective norms and self-efficacy for sun protection predicted only intention to sun protect; sunbathing norms predicted only intention to sunbathe. Susceptibility and advantages of tanning predicted both intention constructs, which, in turn, predicted behavior. These findings distinguish sun protection from sunbathing and provide a basis for intervention design.     

Health behavior, knowledge and attitudes among Swedish university students

A range of health behaviors was related to beliefs concerning health practices and health knowledge. A questionnaire dealing with health-related practices, health beliefs and knowledge of health risk factors was answered by 166 male and 179 female students aged 18–30 years at Stockholm University. Female students reported engaging in better health behavior than males. Beliefs about the importance of health behaviors were closely related to their frequency of occurrence. There was only a weak relationship between health behaviors and knowledge of specific health matters. It is concluded that health attitudes rather than health knowledge determine health behavior.     

Predicting adolescent health complaints by personality and Behaviors

Abstract

In a sample of 97 male adolescents, individual differences in health complaints were predicted by personality traits and by self-reported health/risk behaviors. Anxiety and loneliness were measured at Times 1 and 2, and health locus of control, various behaviors and health complaints were assessed at the end of the two-year study. A causal model was specified, employing anxiety and loneliness as distal predictors, health locus of control and behaviors as proximal predictors of health complaints. It turned out that anxiety was the most powerful single predictor, and that loneliness exerted a direct effect on health locus of control and behaviors and an indirect effect on health complaints. Risk behavior as well as health behavior were related to complaints. Social integration facilitated not only health behavior but also risk behavior.     

Illness risk representations and motivations to engage in protective behavior: The case of skin cancer risk

This study evaluates the contents of representations of skin cancer risk and their associations with risk appraisals, worry, and protection intentions and behaviors. The Assessment of Illness Risk Representations (AIRR) was used to measure conceptual and imagery contents of risk representations, as delineated by the Common-Sense Model. University students (N?=?120) completed the AIRR; measures of likelihood and severity appraisals, and worry; and measures of skin self-examination, clinical skin examination, and sun protection intentions and behaviors. Beliefs about identity, causal, and timeline risk were positively associated with likelihood appraisals, whereas consequences and timeline risk beliefs were positively associated with severity appraisals. Identity and timeline risk independently predicted worry. Representational attributes, including imagery vividness and valence, independently predicted intentions and behaviors, whereas likelihood and severity appraisals did not. Symptom imagery interacted with worry to predict detection and prevention intentions: worry predicted greater intentions for participants with symptom imagery but not for those without symptom imagery. The findings support the utility of the AIRR for assessing risk representations and identify ways in which risk representations may guide protective behavior.     

Psychosocial factors in sunbathing and sunscreen use

Excessive exposure to the sun has been related to the development of various types of skin cancer, but use of sunscreen decreases the risk. The present project was designed to empirically examine psychosocial factors in sunbathing and sunscreen use. One hundred twenty sunbathing and nonsunbathing beachgoers were interviewed about their health practices, knowledge about skin cancer, moods, and social rewards obtained through sunbathing. They also completed several relevant personality questionnaires. Data were considered using a theoretical perspective combining aspects of health belief, social influence, social learning, and risk-taking models. Results indicate that sunbathing is clearly related to having a positive attitude toward risk taking, having little knowledge about skin cancer, reporting a relaxed mood, having friends who sunbathe, and engaging in activities related to maintaining a positive physical appearance. Sunscreen use is related to sex, having knowledge about skin cancer, knowing people who have had cancer, and reporting high levels of anxiety. The implications of these findings for the design of intervention strategies and for the future study of health-compromising behaviors are discussed.     

Interventions to prevent skin cancer: Experimental evaluation of informational and fear appeals

Abstract

Reports experimental and correlational analyses of intentional sunbathing in 82 female and 54 male suntanned adults at high-risk of skin cancer. Random assignment to high or low information conditions allowed evaluation of a widely-distributed American Cancer Society pamphlet. A crossed manipulation assigned subjects to a cancer fear/no fear condition. Personality variables served as correlational predictors of sunbathing attitudes, intentions, and information-seeking behaviors; skin cancer knowledge served as both a predictor and a dependent variable. Skin cancer knowledge, but not fear, emerged as a significant predictor of attitudes, intentions, and behaviors; and simple provision of information affected relevant knowledge. Contrary to the limits often encountered with health behaviors, specific cancer education appears to be somewhat effective in this domain, though indirectly. High risk-taking personalities were less likely to have or seek relevant information, suggesting the need to take into account individual predispositions and routes of knowledge acquisition when designing interventions.     

Extrinsic Life Goals and Health‐Risk Behaviors in Adolescents1

Guided by self‐determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), two studies examined adolescents' risk behaviors as a function of their extrinsic aspirations for wealth, fame, and image relative to their intrinsic aspirations for growth, relationships, and community; and as a function of their perceptions of their parents' autonomy support. In the first study, adolescents who reported using cigarettes had significantly stronger relative extrinsic aspirations than did adolescents who reported not smoking. In the second study, a composite risk behavior index for adolescents' use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana, and their having had sexual intercourse was significantly predicted by their relative extrinsic life goals, and both students' health‐compromising behaviors and their relative extrinsic goals were significantly negatively predicted by their perceptions of their parents' autonomy support.     

The link between women's body image disturbances and body-focused cancer screening behaviors: A critical review of the literature and a new integrated model for women

A large body of literature demonstrates the association between body image disturbances and health compromising behaviors among women (e.g., pathological eating, substance use, inappropriate exercise). However, given that disturbed body image is a pervasive problem, it is likely inversely related to health maintenance behaviors. Cancer screenings for breast, skin, and cervical cancer represent an important type of health maintenance behavior, yet adherence rates are low. Given the body-focused nature of these screenings, body image may be a salient predictor. This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between body image disturbances and cancer screening behaviors among women culminating in the proposal of a theoretical model. This model posits that body shame and body avoidance predict performance of cancer screenings and that variables drawn from the cancer literature, including risk perception, health anxiety, subjective norms, and self-efficacy, may moderate this relationship. Clinical implications and suggestions for research are discussed.     

Self-presentational determinants of health risk behavior among college freshmen

Abstract

This study examined adolescents' use of unhealthy and potentially dangerous behaviors for self-presentational reasons. At the start of their first semester at college, 110 freshmen (M age = 18.2) completed trait measures of self-presentational concern. At the end of the semester they were asked about their use of health risk behaviors as impression management tactics. Seventy-five percent of respondents reported performing at least 1 risky behavior for self-presentational reasons during their first college semester. The most common behaviors were smoking, drinking, driving recklessly and performing dangerous stunts. The desire to be perceived as “cool” or a “risk-taker” often prompted healdi risks. Modest correlations between the trait measures and health risk behaviors provided additional evidence that self-presentational motives sometimes play a role in adolescent health risk behavior.     

Cognitive antecedents to adolescent health risk: Discriminating between behavioral intention and behavioral willingness

Abstract

A model of adolescent health risk behavior that is both cognitive and social-psychological in orientation is described, and an aspect of the model is tested empirically. The model suggests that health risk behaviors (e.g., smoking or drunk driving), especially among adolescents, are not always intended or premeditated, but instead are often reactions to risk-conducive circumstances. Because they are not entirely premeditated, such behaviors are not accurately predicted by “traditional” behavioral intention measures, but are predicted by a central construct in the model labeled behavioral willingness. Results of two studies indicate that both intention (expectation) and willingness measures predict future risk behaviors, and do so independent of one another. Additional analyses provide further evidence of discriminant validity between the two constructs by indicating that they relate differently to perceptions of personal vulnerability to the health risks associated with these behaviors.     

Relationship between family religious behaviors and child well-being among third-grade children

While there is growing empirical evidence that religion can have a positive impact on the health and well-being of adults and adolescents, less is known about its influence on the welfare of children. The current paper examined the relative importance of family religiosity and religious behaviors on multiple measures of children's well-being (general health, academic achievement, social skills, and behavior problems) and sought to identify whether religious variables contribute above and beyond non-religious measures of family caregiving. Parent use of religious coping and family religious behaviors, the latter defined as attendance at religious or spiritual programs, predicted several aspects of child well-being above and beyond parenting styles. Parental religious coping significantly predicted child social skills and externalizing behaviors above and beyond parenting styles. Family religious service attendance significantly predicted child health and social skills, and inversely predicted internalizing behaviors, above and beyond both parenting styles and parent use of religious coping.     

Health beliefs and breast examination behaviors: Analyses of linear structural relations

Abstract

A survey of 619 Detroit-area women was conducted in order to understand why women do or do not perform breast self-examination and obtain or not obtain professional breast examinations. The survey assessed these behaviors and women's beliefs about (a) their susceptibility to breast cancer, (b) the seventy or seriousness of breast cancer, (c) the benefits of breast examinations and (d) the costs or disadvantages of the examinations. Separate sets of questions measured seventy of breast cancer when it is treated (a) late (seventy-late) and (b) promptly (seventy-early). Predictions were derived by combining the health belief model with the theory of subjective expected utility. Path analysis supported most predictions of the combined theory. As predicted, high severity-late increased perceived benefit, high seventy-early decreased benefit, and perceived benefit mediated the effects of seventy on behavior. Implications for understanding health decisions, measuring health beliefs, and modifying health behaviors are discussed.     

Internet Safety and the Silver Surfer: The Relationship Between Gist Reasoning and Adults' Risky Online Behavior

Currently, fewer older adults are online compared with younger generations. However, with many new initiatives aiming to significantly increase the number of older internet users, they will increasingly be exposed to potential victimisation from internet fraud, a fundamental issue affecting all adult internet users. Despite this, little research has examined online risk‐taking across the adult lifespan or adults' reasoning about risky online behaviors. Using fuzzy trace theory, we investigated adults' online risk‐taking behavior and intentions, and whether these behaviors were related to different ways of reasoning about risk, namely, gist reasoning (using qualitative, intuitive knowledge) and verbatim reasoning (using quantitative, specific knowledge). Participants (326 adults, 18–79 years old, M_age = 49.54 years) reported their past risk‐taking behavior, future online risk intentions, gist and verbatim reasoning about online risk, sensation seeking, and time spent online. Age was negatively correlated with past risk‐taking, time online, future risk intentions, and sensation seeking. However, time spent online was positively related to future risk intentions, suggesting that spending more time using the internet could lead individuals to take more risks. Increased verbatim reasoning predicted increased intentions to take online risks, while gist reasoning predicted reduced intentions to take risks online. Our findings extend online risk research applying fuzzy trace theory to adolescents and young adults and suggest that online safety training incorporating gist‐based reasoning strategies could benefit all adults and, in particular, older generations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Health Behaviors of Childhood Cancer Survivors: What We’ve Learned

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of childhood cancer survivors due to improved cancer treatments. However, these survivors are at risk for numerous late-effects as a result of their cancer therapy. Engaging in health-protective behaviors and limiting risky health behaviors are vitally important for survivors given their increased risks and physical late-effects. For this paper, we systematically reviewed the literature on childhood cancer survivors’ health behaviors by searching for published data and conference proceedings using computerized databases and references, and summarized these results. We examined the literature describing the prevalence of a variety of health behaviors among survivors, identifying significant covariates, and describing health behavior interventions. Finally, we provided research recommendations and discussed an ongoing study designed to address some of the limitations in the existing literature. The research to date is limited and recommendations for future studies are outlined.     

Feel good now or regret it later? The respective roles of affective attitudes and anticipated affective reactions for explaining health‐promoting and health risk behavioral intentions

Evidence supporting the incorporation of affective constructs, such as affective attitudes and anticipated regret, into theoretical models of health behavior has been mounting in recent years; however, the role of positive anticipated affective reactions (e.g., pride) has been largely unexplored. The purpose of the present investigation was to assess how affective attitudes and anticipated affective reactions (both pride and regret for performing a behavior or not) may provide distinct utility for understanding intentions to perform health‐promoting and health risk behaviors over and above cognitive attitudes and other established theoretical constructs from the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Participants (N = 210) were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to complete a one‐time online battery assessing TPB and affective constructs. Self‐reported intentions served as the main outcome measure, and hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the effects of TPB and affective constructs across behaviors. Controlling for TPB constructs, more positive affective attitudes and greater anticipated regret, but not anticipated pride, predicted intentions to engage in future health behaviors. Anticipated affective reactions contributed explanatory variance for intentions to perform health risk behaviors, but anticipated pride and regret were not associated with intentions to perform health risk behaviors. Contributions made via the inclusion of both positively and negatively valence anticipated affective reactions for both action and inaction (performing a behavior or not) across a range of health promoting and health risk behaviors are discussed, as well as implications for future intervention work.     

Risky behavior in young adult pedestrians: Personality determinants,correlates with risk perception,and gender differences

Based on the risk homeostasis theory, the aim of this study was to assess acceptable risk, measured by personality factors, and risk perception, measured by physiological arousal, as predictors of risky behavior in young adult pedestrians, as well as to assess for gender differences. Eighty-two young adults, aged 18–30, completed self-report measures about risky pedestrian behaviors and these personality traits: impulsiveness, conscientiousness and openness to experience. Sixty-four of these participants then took part in an experimental task designed to assess their perception of the level of risk in situations involving different interactions between cars and pedestrians. Risk perception was assessed by these physiological responses: heart rate, skin conductance level, and skin conductance response. Results showed that risky behavior had significant correlations with impulsiveness, conscientiousness, and skin conductance level. Gender differences also emerged in risky behavior, impulsiveness, conscientiousness, and skin conductance level. Finally, a structural equation model showed that impulsiveness, conscientiousness and the difference in skin conductance level between risky and neutral situations predicted risky pedestrian behaviors, and explained 23.6% of the its variance, after controlling the effect of gender. Implications for evaluation, prevention, and intervention for risky pedestrian behaviors are discussed.