Validating the revised Health Belief Model for young families: implications for nurses' health promotion practice

By modifying the Health Belief Model (HBM) nurses can provide health promotion guidance for families through the revised HBM for young families. The constructs 'perceived behavioral control' and 'behavioral intention' from Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior were added to the HBM to provide a health orientation. An initial qualitative study informed the second quantitative study through thematic data obtained by interviewing parents about family health. The second comparative study of low and high socioeconomic status families of preschool-aged children living in western Sydney, Australia, measured family health through the Parental Health Behavior Questionnaire (PHBQ). After a small pilot study, the researcher distributed 150 questionnaires to center directors from preschools, kindergartens and long day care, who then handed out questionnaires to interested parents. Data collection occurred in 1998 with consenting parents returning the questionnaires for collection by the researchers. A convenience sample of 103 was obtained with a 69% return rate. Analysis was undertaken through MANCOVA. Justification for validity occurred through logical analysis and hypothesis testing, based on the literature, while reliability was acknowledged by undertaking Cronbach coefficient alphas on small variable clusters. Results support the constructs 'perceived behavioral control' and 'behavioral intention' in the revised model, suggesting that for families of different socioeconomic background, differences emerge in terms of their perceived control over their child's health and the initiation of health behaviors for their child. Recommendations for further research are for refinement of the PHBQ, new research with different families, and further testing of all the model constructs.