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Moderating effect of socioeconomic status on the relationship between health cognitions and behaviors
Mark Conner1, Rosemary McEachan, Cath Jackson
1University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
Background:
There is an established link between socioeconomic status (SES) and performance of health behaviors with more health protective and fewer health-risking behaviors in higher SES groups.
Purpose:
This research is novel in testing the moderating effect of SES on the relationship among intention, self-efficacy, and subsequent behavior.
Methods:
Effects were tested on data from three prospective correlational studies examining smoking initiation in adolescents (N = 826), breastfeeding in primiparous women (N = 202), and physical activity in working adults (N = 509).
Results:
Despite examining different behaviors, samples, time intervals, and measures of SES, each study showed significant interactions between intention and SES in predicting behavior. In all three tests, the intention-behavior relationship was attenuated among individuals from lower SES groups. No moderation effects of SES were found for self-efficacy.
Conclusions:
The intention-health behavior relationship can be attenuated in lower SES samples. This finding may contribute to our understanding of SES differences in health behaviors.
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