Health-related information seeking as a function of health-related locus of control and health value

Two studies were conducted testing the hypothesis that health-related information seeking is a joint function of a person's locus of control beliefs and the value placed on health. Using a health-related measure of locus of control, internal subjects who valued health highly relative to other terminal values (cf. Rokeach, 1973) chose more pamphlets about the particular health condition, hypertension, than did internal-low health value subjects or externals regardless of their health value. Little evidence was found to support the proposition that subject differentially chose pamphlets according to author characieristics (i.e., male or female, doctors or nurses).     

The Krantz Health Opinion Survey: correlations with preventive health behaviors and intentions

The Krantz Health Opinion Survey, a measure of treatment preferences, was administered to 124 college women who also completed the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale and rated their own preventive health behaviors and intentions. Analysis confirmed previous findings of relations between the two scales, particularly the moderate negative correlation between the Krantz Behavioral Involvement Scale and Powerful Others Locus of Control. The Krantz scores also were correlated with demographic measures such as education and occupation of the head of the household. With the exception of low correlations with frequency of obtaining Pap tests and with intentions to engage in exercise, the Krantz scores were uncorrelated with preventive health behaviors and intentions. It may be that another variable such as health value moderates these associations.     

Matching health messages to health locus of control beliefs for promoting mammography utilization

This field experiment examined the persuasiveness of matching health messages to individuals’ health locus of control beliefs in an effort to promote screening mammography. Women (N = 499) who called the New England regional office of the Cancer Information Service were stratified by their health locus of control and randomly assigned to receive a telephone message and follow-up print materials matched to either an internal or external health locus of control orientation. As expected, women who received information consistent with their health locus of control beliefs generally were more likely to obtain a mammogram 6 and 12 months after the intervention than women who received information that was not consistent with their health locus of control orientation.     

Japanese social workers' healthy behaviours as related to masculinity: Focus on mental health workers and caregivers of children and nursing home residents

Due to the rapid ageing of the Japanese population, the demand for social services is increasing. However, these professions are not generally recognized yet. According to the report by Kawata (1984, 1986), social workers were distressed by low pay and low recognition for the profession, an inflexible, hierarchical administration system, and staff shortages. However, few studies have focused on social workers' healthy behaviours. The present study focused on the healthy behaviours of Japanese social workers and examined the relationship of these habits to masculinity and femininity, in addition to gender differences. To identify the healthy behaviours of social workers, we compared the behaviours of 32 mental health workers and 63 caregivers to those of 91 members of the general public who attended a summer course. Four questionnaires were administered: health locus of control (Watanabe, 1985), healthy behaviours (Munakata, 1996), health state, and Masculinity‐Humanity‐Femininity scale (Ito, 1978). The results revealed that females scored higher in masculinity than males, and females tended to assess their health state as poorer and were more active in preventive health than males. Social workers practice preventive healthy behaviours more than the general public. Between the two types of social workers, mental health workers tend to rely on medical services and believe that health and sickness are matters of luck, whereas caregivers tend to believe they can control their health by themselves. In the health locus of control, external control was more closely associated with poor health than internal control, and it was negatively correlated with masculinity. As masculinity is related to healthy behaviours, it may be an important factor influencing them. Both masculinity and femininity could be desirable, not for only better caregiving but also for the social workers' own health.     

Value correlates of preventive health behavior

In a postal survey, 113 respondents completed the Rokeach (1967) Terminal Value Survey with an additional value, "health," and 15 questions about their preventive health behavior (PHB). Correlation and regression analyses showed that health and other values were related to overall PHB, suggesting that health researchers should also consider the role of values other than health. In consistency with Rokeach's theory, respondents who reported good PHB valued health more than did those who reported poor PHB. There were also significant differences in the general value orientation of extraversion versus introversion. Health educators might apply knowledge of such differences to a value confrontation program. As hypothesized, regression analyses for each of the 15 PHB items showed that health value was more likely to be predictive of behavior that involved a direct rather than indirect risk to health. For behaviorally consistent respondents, health value was correlated with both types of behavior, whereas for behaviorally inconsistent respondents, health value was only correlated with direct-risk behavior. This suggests that health researchers should ensure that subjects are aware of the relevance of a PHB to health before concluding that health value, or a related construct, cannot be predictive of PHB. Finally, the regression analyses suggest that it was possible to predict specific PHBs from the more general value ranks. This finding raised questions about the validity of Ajzen and Fishbein's (1977) notion of levels of specificity and provided further support to Rokeach's value theory.     

Spiritual health locus of control and breast cancer beliefs among urban African American women.

The present study examined the relationship between spiritual health locus of control, breast cancer beliefs, and mammography utilization among a sample of 1,227 African American women from urban public health centers. Spiritual health locus of control was conceptualized as having an active and passive dimension, empowering individuals in their health beliefs and behaviors or rendering them to rely on a higher power (e.g., God) to determine their health outcomes, respectively. The active dimension was negatively associated with perceived benefits of mammography and positively associated with perceived barriers to mammography. The active and passive spiritual dimensions are distinct from internal and external health locus of control. Further study of their associations with other health-related beliefs and behaviors is warranted.     

Health as a value: methodological and theoretical considerations

The concept of value placed on health is very important in several different theoretical approaches to the study of health behavior. In practice, however, health value is generally assumed to be universally high rather than being directly measured. If this assumption is incorrect, then theories that include health value have rarely been adequately tested. This paper presents a short 4-item Likert scale designed to measure the value placed on health. Norms from the utilization of this scale in five different samples are presented. Health value is found to increase with age among girls, but the increase apparently stops by late adolescence, before full adult levels of health value are achieved. Middle-aged women place a higher value on health than do middle-aged men, although no comparable sex difference appears in a sample of undergraduates. Consistent with theoretical predictions, both health locus of control beliefs and beliefs in the efficacy of certain preventive health behaviors correlate more highly with the performance of those same behaviors 5 to 9 months later among respondents who place a high value of health relative to those who do not value health so highly. However, this interaction is found only when it can be safely assumed that health is the primary value underlying the behavior. The importance of considering a variety of values in addition to health as possible motivators of preventive health behavior is stressed.     

Health locus of control and self-esteem as related to adolescent health behavior and intentions

A health behavior and attitudes questionnaire was administered to 246 fifth-grade and 265 sixth-grade students during class time. The questions included 20 children's health locus of control (CHLC) items reported by Parcel and Meyer (1978), 17 children's self-esteem (CSE) items modified from those reported by Coopersmith (1967), and questions concerning past and current behavior and future intentions with respect to cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and marijuana use. The results indicate that the relationships between dimensions of children's health locus of control and self-esteem and their behaviors and intentions are not large enough to suggest that intervention programs directed at the prevention of detrimental health behaviors focus on the enhancement of self-esteem or the internal locus of control. An appropriate test of the efficacy of such an approach requires a longitudinal rather than a cross-sectional study, monitoring changes in the levels of self-esteem and health locus of control and associated changes in health behavior.     

An Examination of the Individual‐Difference Approach to the Role of Norms in the Theory of Reasoned Action1

The relationship between subjective norm and behavioral intentions is the weakest link of the theory of reasoned action. Numerous approaches have addressed this issue, including the assertion that the weak contribution is a result of a small number of individuals who are under normative control. The present research examines this individual‐difference approach in the domain of health behaviors. Respondents were 287 students who rated their intentions, attitudes, and subjective norms in relation to 32 health behaviors and 5 substance‐use behaviors. Regression analyses, between subjects and within subjects, demonstrated that both behaviors and people can be under attitudinal or normative control. Support for an individual‐difference approach was less conclusive when findings were examined separately for specific health behaviors.     

Health Promotion,Health Locus of Control,and Health Behavior: Two Field Experiments1

In spite of a sizable body of research on the effects of information promotions on health knowledge and health behavior, relatively little is known about how such efforts affect change (or why they do not). This paper addresses that problem by exploring the particular role that health locus of control (HLC) beliefs play in individual responses to health promotion efforts aimed at encouraging preventive health behaviors. Two field experiments are presented. The first experiment examined the extent to which HLC beliefs are related to differences in individual levels of health knowledge following the distribution of an informational booklet on health. Internals high on health value who received the information booklet demonstrated greater health knowledge three months later than did other subjects, although this difference was greater among men than among women. The second experiment explored how HLC beliefs interact with differently framed “control” messages to promote behavior change in breast self-examination (BSE). HLC beliefs interacted with the control language of the BSE promotional message and a neutral reminder to affect subsequent BSE practice. Together, these studies suggest a more influential role for health locus of control beliefs in shaping responses to health messages than has previously been documented in field settings.     

Work,marriage, and health behaviors of African American working couples

Using a sample of 379 African American working husbands and wives, this study examined a unique link between work and marital experiences on health‐promoting behaviors. Results of the dyadic model show that husbands' and wives' control over work are directly associated with husbands' and wives' health‐promoting behaviors, respectively, after taking into account the dependencies between husbands and wives. The results of the dyadic model also show that husbands' and wives' control over work are indirectly associated with husbands' and wives' health behaviors through their perceived marital integrations. By understanding how work control and marital integration combine to influence both husbands' and wives' health behaviors, programs that promote healthy behaviors can be better designed and more effectively implemented.     

Optimism,goals, and threats: How to conceptualize self-regulatory processes in the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors

Abstract

How individuals control themselves and their health behaviors can be better understood by examining their self-beliefs in terms of threats and goals. The distinction between self-regulatory threat appraisals and self-regulatory goal attainment may help to explain when individuals fall prey to defensive optimism and when they are guided by functional optimism. To underscore the notion of process-specific self-beliefs, a further distinction is made between goal-setting self-efficacy, action self-efficacy, coping self-efficacy, and recovery self-efficacy.     

The effects of message framing on behavioral prevalence assumptions

Based on attribution theory and the logic of conversational norms, we predicted that image‐based health communications can alter prevalence estimates for health behaviors. In two studies, participants were exposed either to a positively‐framed or negatively‐framed communication advocating for specific health behaviors. As predicted, participants who read a health communication rated healthy behaviors as less common when positive attributes were associated with healthy choices than when negative attributes were associated with unhealthy choices. The second study revealed that this pattern was most pronounced among participants who reported initial uncertainty about behavioral norms. These findings suggest that positively‐framed influence attempts can promote prevalence assumptions that work against the influence attempt. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Internal health locus of control predicts willingness to track health behaviors online and with smartphone applications

Given rising technology use across all demographic groups, digital interventions offer a potential strategy for increasing access to health information and care. Research is lacking on identifying individual differences that impact willingness to use digital interventions, which may affect patient engagement. Health locus of control, the amount of control an individual believes they have over their own health, may predict willingness to use mobile health (mHealth) applications (‘apps’) and online trackers. A cross-sectional study (n = 276) was conducted to assess college students’ health locus of control beliefs and willingness to use health apps and online trackers. Internal and powerful other health locus of control beliefs predicted willingness to use health apps and online trackers while chance health locus of control beliefs did not. Individuals with internal and powerful other health locus of control beliefs are more willing than those with chance health locus of control beliefs to utilize a form of technology to monitor or change health behaviors. Health locus of control is an easy-to-assess patient characteristic providers can measure to identify which patients are more likely to utilize mHealth apps and online trackers.     

The unconscious pursuit of emotion regulation: Implications for psychological health

Because of the central involvement of emotion regulation in psychological health and the role that implicit (largely unconscious) processes appear to play in emotion regulation, implicit emotion-regulatory processes should play a vital role in psychological health. We hypothesised that implicitly valuing emotion regulation translates into better psychological health in individuals who use adaptive emotion-regulation strategies. A community sample of 222 individuals (56% women) who had recently experienced a stressful life event completed an implicit measure of emotion regulation valuing (ER-IAT) and reported on their habitual use of an important adaptive emotion-regulation strategy: cognitive reappraisal. We measured three domains of psychological health: well-being, depressive symptoms, and social adjustment. As hypothesised, individuals who implicitly valued emotion regulation exhibited greater levels of psychological health, but only when they were high in cognitive reappraisal use. These findings suggest that salutary effects of unconscious emotion-regulation processes depend on its interplay with conscious emotion-regulation processes.     

The unconscious pursuit of emotion regulation: implications for psychological health

Because of the central involvement of emotion regulation in psychological health and the role that implicit (largely unconscious) processes appear to play in emotion regulation, implicit emotion-regulatory processes should play a vital role in psychological health. We hypothesised that implicitly valuing emotion regulation translates into better psychological health in individuals who use adaptive emotion-regulation strategies. A community sample of 222 individuals (56% women) who had recently experienced a stressful life event completed an implicit measure of emotion regulation valuing (ER-IAT) and reported on their habitual use of an important adaptive emotion-regulation strategy: cognitive reappraisal. We measured three domains of psychological health: well-being, depressive symptoms, and social adjustment. As hypothesised, individuals who implicitly valued emotion regulation exhibited greater levels of psychological health, but only when they were high in cognitive reappraisal use. These findings suggest that salutary effects of unconscious emotion-regulation processes depend on its interplay with conscious emotion-regulation processes.     

“转换-坚持”对低阶层健康的保护作用及其机制

低社会阶层是不良健康状况最可靠的社会决定因素之一。然而, 很少有人理解为什么同样处于低阶层, 有些个体却能保持良好的健康状况。在大量实证研究的基础上, 研究者们发现“转换-坚持”策略这一心理因素能有效保护处于逆境中的低阶层者的健康, 使其免于受到疾病的侵扰。当个体面临持续或频繁的压力时, “转换-坚持”策略减轻了下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴的急性生理激活, 有效抑制了低阶层面临逆境时的生理应激反应, 随着时间的推移, 阻止了致病过程的发展; 同时, 该策略还减少了低阶层者的不良健康行为, 进而对健康起到保护作用。未来研究应在深入探索核心机制基础上开发出有效的干预方案, 为解决我国相对贫困问题中的健康贫困提供新的路径。     

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.     

The effects of widowhood on physical and mental health, health behaviors, and health outcomes: The Women's Health Initiative.

This study examined whether widowhood was associated with physical and mental health, health behaviors, and health outcomes using a cross-sectional (N=72,247) and prospective (N=55,724) design in women aged 50-79 years participating in the Women's Health Initiative observational study (85.4% White). At baseline, married women reported better physical and mental health and generally better health behaviors than widowed women. Whereas women who remained married over the 3-year period showed stability in mental health, recent widows experienced marked impairments and longer term widows showed stability or slight improvements. Both groups of widows reported more unintentional weight loss over the 3-year period. Changes in physical health and health behaviors were inconsistent, with generally small effect sizes. Findings underscore the resilience of older women and their capacity to reestablish connections, but point to the need for services that strengthen social support among women who have difficulty during this transition.