Preventing the spread of H1N1 influenza infection during a pandemic: autonomy-supportive advice versus controlling instruction

Abstract

Wearing facemask is an effective strategy for preventing the spread of the H1N1 in enclosed public spaces. This quasi-experiment examined the effects of University professor 'autonomy support on students' motivation, social cognitive factors, and intention to wear facemasks in the lecture hall during a hypothetical H1N1 pandemic. University students (N = 705) completed self-report measures of motivation, social cognitive factors, and intention according to a hypothetical H1N1 pandemic scenario in which their professors asked them to wear facemasks in the lecture hall, using either an 'autonomy-supportive' interpersonal style or a 'controlling' style. The results showed that the manipulation of professors' autonomy support exerted a positive effect on students' perception of autonomy support, which positively predicted their self-determined motivation, social cognitive factors, and intentions to wear facemasks. In conclusion, promoting self-determined motivation using autonomy-supportive communication styles might be an effective means of fostering individuals' adaptive beliefs and motivation of H1N1 prevention.

The process by which perceived autonomy support predicts motivation, intention, and behavior for seasonal influenza prevention in Hong Kong older adults

“…Perceived autonomy support was related to autonomous motivation for adopting health-related behaviors consistent with the predictions of SDT [ 16 , 17 , 38 ], a key component theory of the integrated model [ 22 , 23 ]. The finding is also consistent with the findings of a previous study on facemask wearing [ 20 ]. The results suggest that establishing an autonomy supportive environment or ‘motivational climate’ toward influenza prevention behaviors such as facemask wearing will be effective in fostering autonomous motivation toward the behavior.…”

“…Consistent with previous studies of influenza prevention behaviors such as facemask wearing and vaccination using the TPB [ 14 , 15 , 20 ], attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control had positive, significant, and medium-to-large associations with the intentions of wearing facemasks in Hong Kong older adults. Among these three variables, perceived behavioral control had the strongest effects relative to attitudes and subjective norms.…”

“…Participants responded to items on 7-point Likert scales with 1 (“not at all true”) and7 (“very true”) as scale anchors. The Chinese version of TSRQ has demonstrated sufficient validity and reliability [ 20 ].…”

“…Consistent with the need to promote autonomous motivation toward health behaviors, according to the SDT, creating a context or ‘environment’ that cultivates autonomous motivation is an effective means to promote autonomous motivation and change behavior [ 18 , 19 ]. In an influenza prevention context, interventionists may capitalize on autonomy support techniques as a means to promote autonomous motivation [ 20 ]. For community-dwelling older adults, their senior center serves as an important vehicle to present autonomy-supportive messages to promote behaviors that could enhance health and well-being, including preventive behaviors to reduce the transmission of potentially life-threatening infections [ 21 ].…”

“…Although a recent study also applied the integrated model to predict behavior in the context of H1N1 pandemic, participants were presented with a hypothetical situation and were not actually facing an actual pandemic and no actual facemask wearing behavior was assessed. [ 20 ]. Even though intention is theoretically the most proximal predictor of behavior, there has been growing number of concerns about the differential predictive power of intention on health behavior, and the so-called intention-behavior gap has raised concerns over the adequacy of intentions in explaining future behavior [ 30 – 32 ].…”