Abstract
BackgroundAdequate sun safety during childhood is crucial for decreasing skin cancer risk in later life. Although parents are an essential target group in applying sun protection measures for their children, insight into the determinants associated with their sun protection behaviors is limited.AimsThis study aims to identify the most relevant determinants in predicting multiple parental sun protection intentions and behaviors in different sun exposure situations.MethodA longitudinal survey study with two measurements was conducted among Dutch parents (N = 670) of children (4–12 years old). Twenty-seven sociocognitive determinants were examined in terms of relevance regarding four parental sun protection behaviors in different sun exposure situations. The Confidence Interval-Based Estimation of Relevance approach was used to visualize room for improvement (sample means) on all determinants and their association strengths (correlations) with sun protection intentions and behaviors.ResultsBehavior-specific rather than generic determinants were most relevant in explaining all sun protection behaviors. Of these determinants, attitude, self-efficacy and action planning, and especially parental feelings of difficulty in performing sun protection behaviors, were most relevant. Altogether, the explained variance of all sociocognitive determinants was highest for shade-seeking behavior (R2 = .41 and .43) and lowest for supportive behavior (R2 = .19 and .29) in both planned and incidental sun exposure situations, respectively.DiscussionThis study provides detailed insight into relevant sociocognitive determinants of parental sun protection behaviors in various sun exposure situations and directions for composing parental skin cancer prevention interventions.ConclusionsFuture composition of sun safety interventions should emphasize on enhancing parental feelings of self-efficacy, especially for shade-seeking and clothing behaviors.
Highlights
Adequate sun safety during childhood is crucial for decreasing skin cancer risk in later life
Attrition analyses indicated that demographic characteristics were not significantly associated with drop out on T1 and T2
This study provides detailed insight in relevant sociocognitive determinants for predicting parental sun protection behaviors in various sun exposure situations
Summary
Adequate sun safety during childhood is crucial for decreasing skin cancer risk in later life. This study aims to identify the most relevant determinants in predicting multiple parental sun protection intentions and behaviors in different sun exposure situations. Twentyseven sociocognitive determinants were examined in terms of relevance regarding four parental sun protection behaviors in different sun exposure situations. Behavior-specific rather than generic determinants were most relevant in explaining all sun protection behaviors Of these determinants, attitude, self-efficacy and action planning, and especially parental feelings of difficulty in performing sun protection behaviors, were most relevant. The explained variance of all sociocognitive determinants was highest for shade-seeking behavior (R2 = .41 and .43) and lowest for supportive behavior (R2 = .19 and .29) in both planned and incidental sun exposure situations, respectively. This study provides detailed insight into relevant sociocognitive determinants of parental sun protection behaviors in various sun exposure situations and directions for composing parental skin cancer prevention interventions. Future composition of sun safety interventions should emphasize on enhancing parental feelings of self-efficacy, especially for shade-seeking and clothing behaviors
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