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Increasing Women's Calcium Intake: The Role of Health Beliefs, Intentions, and Health Value 1
Author(s) -
Wurtele Sandy K.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1988.tb00041.x
Subject(s) - psychology , vulnerability (computing) , social psychology , health belief model , coping (psychology) , health promotion , behavior change , health behavior , value (mathematics) , theory of reasoned action , action (physics) , clinical psychology , environmental health , medicine , public health , nursing , quantum mechanics , computer science , machine learning , physics , computer security
Undergraduate women who varied in how much they valued health were exposed to written communications persuading them of their vulnerability to osteoporosis and of the effectiveness of a recommended action in preventing this disease. Vulnerability had a significant main effect on intentions and subsequent behavior. This effect was obtained regardless of how much the subjects valued their health or whether the coping response was effective. Intentions to perform the recommended behaviors proved to be the best predictors of self‐reported and actual behavior change, in support of the Ajzen‐Fishbein (1980) model. Intentions, in turn, were predicted from recipients' beliefs regarding their ability to perform the behavior, their vulnerability to the health threat, and the effectiveness of the recommended threat‐reducing response. Implications of these findings for health promotion campaigns are discussed.