Gablonski, Carissa (2019) Caregivers Intentions to Perform Child Sun-Protection: Extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Skin cancer is one of the most prevalent types of cancer in Australia. Despite the ongoing promotion of sun safety by the Cancer Council Australia, the rate of skin cancer has continued to increase. Sun safety is particularly important during childhood with approximately half of lifetime sun exposure occurring before the age of 20. Young children (0 to 6 years) rely on their primary caregivers (parents, grandparents, or foster parents) to perform sun-protective behaviours. The aim of this research was to gain an understanding of what influences caregivers to perform sun-protective behaviours for their children aged 0 to 6 years using an extended theory of planned behaviour. It was hypothesised that the additional constructs (knowledge of sun-protection, perceived susceptibility of skin cancer, and caregivers’ own sun-protection behaviours) added to the theory of planned behaviour (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control) would significantly increase the amount of variance explained in caregivers’ intention to use sun-protection behaviours for their child. Participants (n = 72), 90.3% female and 9.7% male, completed an online survey. To test the hypotheses, bivariate correlation and a multiple hierarchical regression were conducted. Results revealed that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control explained 20.5% of variance in intention. The additional constructs further explained 5.8% variance in intention. The findings of this study highlighted that attitude and perceived behavioural control are important factors to consider when predicting caregivers’ intentions to perform sun-protection for young children. It was concluded that the understanding gained from this study may be useful in future research which investigates interventions that increase caregivers sun-protection behaviours for young children.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Carla Jeffries |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2025 04:02 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Sep 2025 04:02 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | sun-protection behaviours; theory of planned behaviour; young children; caregivers; skin cancer |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52334 |
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