Predicting Intention for Protective Health Behaviour: A Test of the Protection versus the Ordered Protection Motivation Model

Abstract

Tanner and his colleagues (Eppright, Tanner, & Hunt, 1994; Tanner, Day, & Crask, 1989; Tanner, Hunt, & Eppright, 1991) proposed a reformulation of Rogers's (1983, 1984) protection motivation theory to include three major amendments: (a) the inclusion of the emotional component of fear, (b) the sequential ordering of the threat-coping appraisal processes, and (c) the role of maladaptive coping in an ordered protection motivation model. Using HIV/AIDS as the threat communication strategy, the present study tested the structural relationships hypothesised for Rogers's protection motivation model and the reformulated ordered protection motivation model, and evaluated the overall and relative fit of the two competing models in predicting intention for condom use among 248 adults. The results suggested that Rogers's original protection motivation model may be a better representation of the way individuals evaluate health-threat information than the reformulated ordered protection motivation model. Results from path analysis also demonstrated how the emotional component of fear and maladaptive coping modes operated differentially in the two models. Implications for the theory of protection motivation and its use in promoting good health behaviours are discussed.