Behavioral Theory in a Diverse Society: Like a Compass on Mars

Abstract

The behavioral theory constructs most often used to study mammography utilization-perceived benefit, perceived susceptibility, self-efficacy, intention, and subjective norms-have neither been developed nor sufficiently tested among diverse racial/ethnic subgroups. The authors explored these constructs and their underlying assumptions relating to the social context of Filipina and Latina women. The mixed-methods study included testing construct measures in the multilingual surveys of a concurrent intervention study of 1,463 women from five ethnic groups. social context and individual screening behavior. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 key informant scholars, 13 community gatekeepers, and 29 lay women, and a supplemental study videotaped and interviewed 9 mother-daughter dyads. Three social context domains emerged: relational culture, social capital, and transculturation and transmigration. The meaning and appropriateness of the five behavioral constructs were analyzed in relation to these domains. In contradistinction to tenets of behavioral theory, the authors found that social context can influence behavior directly, circumventing or attenuating the influence of individual beliefs; contextual influences, synthesized from multiple perspectives, can operate at an unconscious level not accessible to the individual; and contextual influences are dynamic, contingent on distal and proximal forces coming together in a given moment and are thus not consistent with an exclusive focus at the individual level. This article describes the study methods, summarizes main findings, and previews the detailed results presented in the other articles in this issue.Keywords behavioral theory; culture; social context; mixed methods; mammographyThe compass is a device whose function is inseparable from its context of origin, the planet Earth. Based on the concept of a magnetic north, a compass would not be useful, for example, on Mars with that planet's multiple magnetic fields. According to one NASA scientist, "If you were a boy scout with a compass on Mars, you would be lost" (J. E. P. Connerney, personal communication, August 22, 2003). Much of health behavior theory, anchored in the realm of individual cognition, has been developed and tested predominantly among university students (Ajzen, 1991) and then applied far more broadly. The bases for the theories are commonalities within groups in factors that influence behavior and the consistency and predictability of relationships among those factors. But these theoretically derived patterns do not operate in the same way for all people. Instead, when used in multicultural settings and among those of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, this body of work can be likened to "a compass on Mars," a navigational tool that is designed for a set of forces and principles likely to operate differently-or not at all-in another milieu. Yet there is an implied universality in the way health behavior theories and their constructs are used. Despite the current emphasis on dissemin...

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