Dental flossing and automaticity: a longitudinal moderated mediation analysis

Abstract

We investigated the role of normative support, behavioural automaticity, and action control in predicting dental flossing behaviour. Between May and October 2015, 629 Australian young adults completed a questionnaire assessing constructs of normative support and automaticity, and a 2-week follow-up of dental flossing behaviour and action control, resulting in n = 241 persons for longitudinal analysis. Findings supported the hypotheses that the effect of normative support on behaviour would be mediated via automaticity, and the effect of automaticity would be moderated by action control. Current results extend previous research to elucidate the mechanisms that help to understand predictors of oral hygiene behaviours and contribute to the cumulative evidence concerning self-regulatory and automatic components of health behaviour.

Reflective and impulsive processes underlying saving behavior and the additional roles of self-control and habit.

“…The current findings suggest a role for both, in which previously acquired habits are associated with intentions to perform a behaviour. This is in line with recent results in other behavioural domains (Allom, Mullan, Cowie, & Hamilton, 2016;Hagger, Trost, Keech, Chan & Hamilton, 2017;Hamilton, Orbell, Bonham, Kroon & Schwarzer, 2017), and current theories of habit (Gardner, 2015), which suggests that these processes can simultaneously or synergistically influence behaviour. People may form 'good' habits in the service of goal intentions, and experience ease of performance as a consequence of habit development, so that self reports reflect consistency between habit and intention (Orbell, in press).…”

Parents' role constructions for facilitating physical activity‐related behaviours in their young children

“…For example, ‘I see it as just teaching her good habits to set her up for a healthy life so that when she's out of our hands, that she continues being a healthy person'— M04 . Because habit has been found to be a reliable predictor of behavioural engagement (Hamilton, Orbell, Bonham, Kroon, & Schwarzer, ; Gardner, de Bruijn, & Lally, ), the implication of this emergent role construction is that it provides a further focal point for supporting parents. Furthermore, parents' descriptions did not include a detailed understanding of the processes underpinning habit formation.…”

A Mobile App (WhiteTeeth) to Promote Good Oral Health Behavior Among Dutch Adolescents with Fixed Orthodontic Appliances: Intervention Mapping Approach (Preprint)

“…Most oral health promotion programs have focused on the motivational factors. However, recent studies have shown promising results from programs that targeted both motivational and volitional factors [38,40,[45][46][47][48][49]. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first oral health app for adolescents that integrates several behavior change techniques, and simultaneously targets the motivational and volitional factors of oral-health behavior change.…”

“…We identified prompt barrier identification and the creation of coping plans as suitable methods for helping adolescents to identify possible ways of achieving their oral health goal if they encounter difficulties (targeting determinants: "self-regulatory skills/action control", "coping self-efficacy" and "coping planning") [40,55,56,57]. If adolescents fail to attain their goals, coping plans can be formulated [31].…”

“…Next, the changeability of the determinants that can be achieved by an intervention was established by the development group on the basis of the available scientific literature [22,27,37,38,39,40] and consensus judgments. Table 3 presents the important and changeable determinants of our performance objectives.…”