A TEST OF THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR FOR 2 HEALTH-RELATED PRACTICES

This study tested the utility of the theory of planned behavior in pre dicting two health-related behaviors. The first behavior (breast self- exam) is relatively simple, while the second (exercise) is complex. Da ta were utilized from health risk appraisals completed on 185 telephon e company employees. Attitude, normative belief, and self-efficacy mea sures served to predict behavioral intention and subsequent attempt to change both the behaviors. As rested in path models, the results for breast self-examination were closer to the results expected from theor y, with less good fit for exercise. Different models were developed fo r each behavior, although the self-efficacy measures made independent contributions to each. While the theory of planned behavior received s upport in the data, the results suggest that different models may appr opriate for different types of behavior.