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.