An Exploratory Study on Use of Sun Protective Apparel for Children: Parental Knowledge, Attitudes, Role Identity, and Purchase Intentions

Abstract

This research address this important research gap and had a three-fold purpose: 1) to descriptively explore parents’ sunprotective apparel knowledge, frequency of child overexposure's, types of sunprotection used, awareness of sun protective apparel, and attitudes toward sunprotective apparel; 2) to investigate the effect of parental role identitysalience (high/low) on compliance in usage of sun protective apparel forchild(ren); and 3) to examine the effects of child’s level of sun sensitivity(low/moderate/high) on parents’ purchase intentions for sun protective apparel. It was revealed that a majority of children are still experiencing sunoverexposure and a majority of parents are not aware that sun protectiveapparel is the best form of sun protection. Participants had favorable attitudetowards sun protective apparel, and yet a third of the participants relied onsunscreen for sun protection, followed by other types of sun protective apparel.Participants with high parental role identity salience were more likely to maketheir child comply with wearing sun protective apparel than parents with lowsalience. This indicates that additional education of the benefits of sunprotective apparel can increase overall usage in caregivers with high parentalrole identity salience. Additionally, parents of children with high sunsensitivity are more likely to purchase sun protective apparel compared toparents of children with low sun sensitivity. Findings from this study could beused increase awareness of the benefits of sun protective apparel in childrenthrough education, marketing, and apparel labeling.