Home guardianship measures provide individuals with a means to enhance and ensure the safety of themselves, their family, and their property inside their homes. However, research regarding the factors considered in the decision to employ home guardianship measures as well as the means by which individuals assess this information regarding potential threats and protective responses is limited and varied in its implementation. This study attempts to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the use of home guardianship measures with the application of a modified version of Ronald Rogers’ (1983) Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) model. This model assesses factors that directly contribute to the motivation to engage in protective measures as well as cognitive processes through which an individual assesses these factors. This study finds support both for the direct relationships between sources of information about potential threats or protective responses and the use of home guardianship measures, as well as support for mediating effects of these relationships. In conclusion, this study provides suggestions for future research to further examine the application of PMT to understand the use of guardianship measures.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether different types of home protection/guardianship behavior have any influence on worry about burglary, using the Seattle, Washington data collected by Terrance Miethe in 1990. This study also examines whether gender and previous victimization have any moderating effect on the relationship between home guardianship and worry about burglary. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationships. The findings in the main model showed that four of the seven types of home guardianship significantly predicted higher likelihoods of worry of about burglary. When gender was treated as a moderator, only one type of home protection significantly predicted higher chances of worry for females whereas four types of home protection significantly predicted higher odds of worry for males. When previous victimization was treated as a moderator, findings in the non-victims’ model were the same as findings in the main model. Findings in the previous victims’ model showed that one type of home guardianship predicted higher chances of worry about burglary. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.