What influences university students’ intentions to practice safe sun exposure behaviors?

Sunscreen use in NCAA collegiate athletes: Identifying targets for intervention and barriers to use

“…In addition, 85% of soccer and cross-country collegiate athletes reported no sunscreen use in the previous 7 days (Hamant and Adams, 2005). A study among British university students' found that individuals with a perceived vulnerability to developing skin cancer were more likely to perform safe sun practices (Grunfeld, 2004). In this study, athletes who believed they were at risk of skin cancer had a 9-10-fold increased odds of using sunscreen.…”

A Mediator Model of Sunscreen Use: A Longitudinal Analysis of Social-Cognitive Predictors and Mediators

“…Nevertheless, some of the present results require further discussion, for example, the role of health risk awareness adopting the use of sunscreen. In some of the previous studies on sun protection predictors, risk perception was shown to forecast sunscreen use [25,26,34]. But previous research shows that risk perception may be less important than outcome expectancies and self-efficacy in predicting intentions [1].…”

“…Earlier studies have tested the effectiveness of the Health Belief Model in predicting sun protection practice in different age groups [33], the effectiveness of Protection Motivation Theory [34,35], the Theory of Planned Behavior [28], and the Transtheoretical Model [36] in predicting sun protection. However, there is a scarcity of theory-based studies investigating the applicability of both pre-intentional factors, such as positive outcome expectancies, risk perception, and self-efficacy, and postintentional factors, such as planning to change sunscreen use.…”

Sun exposure in young adult cancer survivors on and off the beach: results from Project REACH

“…Perceived vulnerability to future skin cancers from UVexposure was not associated with adherence during SB or IE. Studies in adolescents have shown that although perceived vulnerability is an important motivator for protective health behaviors, perceived benefits of risk behavior may be equally or even more important [37][38][39]. For those reasons, perceived cosmetic effects of SB and potential fitness benefits of IE may outweigh any vulnerability to future skin cancers.…”