Cognitive appraisals, maladaptive coping, and past behaviour in protection motivation

Abstract

There is uncertainty about the combinatorial rules defining the function of past behaviour, cognitive appraisals, and maladaptive coping in Rogers’ (1983) protection motivation theory. The present study tested hypotheses that these variables combine both additively and multiplicatively in predicting protection motivation. Survey data regarding condom use and HIV/AIDS was collected from 337 undergraduates. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed fear and previous behaviour as independent predictors, the latter explaining an additional 9.1% of the variance over and beyond PMT variables. An interaction between fear and maladaptive coping failed to contribute significantly to the predicted variance. Overall, these results highlight the salience of fear and prior behaviour in protection motivation, but cast serious doubt on the ubiquitous notion that health decisions are necessarily based on cognitive deliberations. Implications for protection motivation theory are considered.

Keywords:

• Protection motivation
• Coping
• Appraisals
• Interaction
• Past behaviour

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable contributions to this manuscript. The authors' gratitude also extends to Kirsten McEwan for her help with data entry (SPSS), and the undergraduates who agreed to participate.