Value-expectancy theory was used with 32 Mexican-American women to investigate whether the likelihood of following cancer screening guidelines was a function of perceived effectiveness and difficulty of the behaviors. Participants used magnitude estimation techniques to rate 10 recommended cancer screening behaviors with respect to perceived effectiveness, difficulty, and likelihood of adoption. Standard correlation and regression analysis were conducted on the means of the natural logs of the raw scores. Results indicated both perceived effectiveness and perceived difficulty were significant predictors of likelihood of taking action (R² =.71, p ≤ .005). Unlike previous Anglo samples in which effectiveness was not a significant factor in intent to act, this group of Mexican-American women gave approximately equal importance to effectiveness and difficulty. A curvilinear relationship between difficulty and likelihood is common to this and all previous studies: the sharply decelerating curve indicates that likelihood decreases rapidly with increasing difficulty.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/278352 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Maynard, Katharine Adele, 1956- |
| Contributors | Sennott-Miller, Lee |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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