Psychosocial Correlates of Sunburn among Young Adult Women

Abstract

Skin cancer is an increasingly common disease, particularly among young adult women. Sunburn early in life is a risk factor for skin cancer. Few studies have reported on psychosocial correlates of sunburn. The current study consisted of an online survey of undergraduate women from a university in the northeastern part of the USA. A logistic regression demonstrated that young women who reported a history of four or more sunburns were significantly more likely to report fair skin, higher perceived susceptibility to skin cancer, greater perceived benefits of tanning (e.g., appearance enhancement), lower perceived control over skin protection, and more frequent sunscreen use. Sunbathing was not associated with a greater number of sunburns. These results suggest that young women who sunburn more often possess other skin cancer risk factors, are aware of their susceptibility to skin cancer, and try to use sunscreen, but feel limited control over their skin protection behavior and are not less likely to sunbathe than others. Therefore, interventions are needed to assist high risk young women in asserting more control over their sun protection behavior and perhaps improve the effectiveness of the sunscreen or other skin protection methods they do employ.

A randomised trial to demonstrate the effectiveness of electronic messages on sun protection behaviours

“…534]. Perceived behavioural control is associated with sun protection behaviour [11,[36][37][38]. Individuals may be resigned to their unhealthy behaviour because of previous failed efforts and no longer believe that they have control [31].…”

“…Identifying the most important determinants of both skin cancer risk behaviours and sun protection behaviours is essential for the development of effective health education interventions that focus on changing the most appropriate beliefs [9,10]. For example, few studies have examined the psychosocial correlates of sunburn [11]. Theory-driven health communication is needed to motivate people to engage in sun safety behaviours and avoid sunburn [12].…”

Associations between Seasonal Sleep Change and Indoor Tanning

“…A subset of data from a parent study on correlates of tanning (Heckman, Darlow, Cohen-Filipic, Kloss, Manne, Munshi, et al , 2012; Heckman, Cohen-Filipic, Darlow, Kloss, Manne, & Munshi, 2014) was used to conduct a preliminary investigation. The primary goal was to examine the relationship of seasonal sleep change with several indices of indoor tanning behavior.…”

Adherence and psychological attributes in dermatology

“…We followed the steps of the process of thematic text analysis (78) were interviewed by a psychologist with an MA degree. The interviews' length was [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] minutes. Transcripts were made from the answers and a text data file was created from them.…”

“…Identifying the most important determinants of both skin cancer risk behaviours and sun protection behaviours is essential for the development of effective health education interventions that focus on changing the most appropriate beliefs (32)(33). For example, few studies have examined the psychosocial correlates of sunburn (34). Theory-driven health communication is needed to motivate people to engage in sun safety behaviours and avoid sunburn (35).…”