Empowerment beliefs and intention to uptake cervical cancer screening: three psychosocial mediating mechanisms
Related Experiment Videos
Aleksandra Luszczynska1, Alicja B Durawa, Urte Scholz
1Trauma, Health, & Hazards Center, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80933-7150, USA. aluszczy@uccs.edu
Abstract:
Three studies tested if the associations between women's empowerment beliefs and intentions to attend cervical cancer screening could be explained by mediating psychological mechanisms: control-related beliefs, well being-related beliefs, and beliefs and evaluations referring to social functioning. Data were collected from January to March 2011 in the rural and urban areas across regions of Poland. Study 1 (N = 386) indicated that women with strong empowerment harbored stronger self-efficacy and beliefs that screening participation would make them feel in control of their own health and body. These two types of cognitions were, in turn, associated with stronger cervical cancer screening intentions. Results of Study 2 (N = 527) confirmed three significant well being-related mediators in the relationship between empowerment beliefs and cervical cancer screening: perceived benefits of screening related to well being, appearance satisfaction, discomfort- and shame-related barriers for screening. Finally, Study 3 (N = 424) showed that empowerment enabled receiving higher social support for cervical cancer screening, promoted perceiving fewer barriers for cervical cancer screening-related communication and more social benefits of engaging in cervical cancer screening. Support for cervical cancer screening, social barriers, and benefits were, in turn, related to screening intentions. Across the studies similar shares of intention variance were explained, and thus the hypothesized mediating mechanisms may have similar explanatory power.
Related Concept Videos
Self-Efficacy
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention I
The health belief model (HBM) attempts to predict health-related behavior in specific belief patterns. According to the HBM, a person's...
Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques VI
Motivation and Self-Determination
Motivation, the driving force behind behavior, plays a pivotal role at every stage of the change process. The research...
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results from...
Sources of Self-Esteem II: Performance Feedback
Levels of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention
In primary prevention, actions taken before disease onset prevent the disease from...