Health Behavior Emerging Research Perspectives Health Behavior Emerging Research Perspectives

Health Behavior Emerging Research Perspectives Health Behavior Emerging Research Perspectives Edited by David S. Gochman Raymond S. Kent School of Social Work University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Health behavior: emerging research perspectives / edited by David S. Gochman. p. cm. Includes bibliographies and index. 1. Health behavior. I. Gochman, David S. RA776.9.H43 1988 88-19672 613-dcl9 CIP ISBN 978-1-4899-0835-3 ISBN 978-1-4899-0833-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0833-9 109 8765 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 1998 Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1998 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher This book is dedicated to the cherished memory of my parents, Edward B. and Vesta Gabriel Gochman, who early in my life encouraged me to persevere, to seek quality, and to pursue scholarship; and to Esselyn C. Rudikoff, a psychologist and treasured friend, whose example and insights inspired me to understand behavior. Contributors Arnold Arluke Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastem University, Boston, Massachusetts Alice J. Baumgart School of Nursing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada Zeev Ben-Sira School of Social Work, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Sco pus, Jerusalem, Israel Philip K. Berger Martin School of Public Administration, University of Kentucky, Lex ington, Kentucky John G. Bruhn School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas Patricia J. Bush Laboratory for Children's Health Promotion, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C. Henry P. Cole Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky Edith A. Costello School of Nursing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada Robert E. Davidson Department of Social Science, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chi cago, Illinois Alice E. Fusillo U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Eugene B. Gallagher Departments of Behavioral Science and Sociology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky Thomas F. Garrity Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky, Lexing ton, Kentucky Reed Geertsen Department of Sociology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah David S. Gochman Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky vii viii CONTRIBUTORS James R. Greenley Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin Marie R. Haug Center on Aging and Health, Case Western Reserve University, Cleve land, Ohio Ronald J. Iannotti Laboratory for Children's Health Promotion, Department of Com munity and Family Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C. Stephen Kaplan Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan John P. Kirscht School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan Lloyd J. Kolbe Office of School Health and Special Projects, Division of Health Edu cation, Center for Health Promotion and Education, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia Richard R. Lau Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie-Mellon Univer sity, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Philip R. Nader Department of Pediatrics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California Christian Ritter Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio Debra L. Roter Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland James F. Sallis Department of Pediatrics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California Alexander Segall Department of Sociology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Ingrid Waldron Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Hazel H. Weidman Office of Transcultural Education and Research, Department of Psy chiatry, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida Bruce A. Whitehead College of Information Studies, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Fredric D. Wolinsky Department of Sociology, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas Preface HEALTH BEHAVIOR AS BASIC RESEARCH Health behavior is not a traditional discipline, but a newly emerging interdisciplinary field. It is still in the process of establishing its identity. Few institutional or organizational structures, i.e., departments and programs, reflect it, and few books and journals are directed at it. The primary objective of this book is thus to identify and establish health behavior as an important area of basic research, worthy of being studied in its own right. As a basic research area, health behavior transcends commitment to a particular behavior, a specific illness or health problem, or a single set of determinants. One way of achieving this objective is to look at health behavior as an outcome of a range of personal and social determinants, rather than as a set of risk factors or as targets for intervention strategies directed at behavioral change. The book is thus organized pri marily in terms of the size of the determinants of concern, rather than in terms of specific health behaviors, or specific health problems or conditions. With the first part of the book establishing working defmitions of health behavior and health behavior research as basic frameworks, the second part moves from smaller to larger systems, informing the reader about basic research that demonstrates how health behavior is determined by personal, family, social, institutional, and cultural factors. These distinctions reflect some arbitrar iness: the family, organizations, and institutions, for example, are social units. Moreover, families, social groupings, and organizations reflect elements of the culture in which they exist. Furthermore, the categorizing and sequencing of sections and chapters in no way reflects an attempt to exclude material that deals with other levels of determinants; it serves primarily to facilitate focusing more on one of these determinants than on others. Because so much of health behavior is determined by encounters with the care delivery system, particularly with health professionals, the third part of the book examines the way such encounters determine health behaviors, and how health behaviors and the care de livery system affect one another. This part includes a section on perceptions and inter actions, and a section on power, compliance, and control. The final part considers the relevance of knowledge generated by health behavior research in the training of health professionals, in health promotion and education, and in clinical applications, as well as future research directions and issues. To emphasize and ensure the basic research commitment, contributors were advised that the book was not intended to be yet another volume on behavioral aspects of treatment, or on behavior and the medical model. They were asked to describe current knowledge relevant to their topics, to focus heavily on research dealing with basic concepts, and to ix x PREFACE include critical discussion of research and theoretical issues, together with their thoughts about future research directions. At appropriate stages, outlines and manuscripts were monitored carefully to encourage contributors to refer as much as possible to empirical data, and to ensure that there was no inappropriate emphasis on interventions and pro grammatic descriptions. THE STATE OF THE ART A second objective of the book is to present a representative selection of current health behavior research findings in a single volume. Although texts and books of readings are available in related areas, such as medical sociology (e.g., Mechanic, 1978, 1980; Wolinsky, 1988), health psychology (e.g., Sanders & Suls, 1982; Stone, Cohen, & Adler, 1979), and behavioral health (e.g., Matarazzo, Weiss, Herd, Miller, & Weiss, 1984), none of these were intended to address health behavior systematically. Accordingly, none present a broad spectrum of basic, representative health behavior research. The present volume thus presents the reader with "the state of the art" in health behavior research. DIVERSITY OF PERSPECTIVES A third objective is to ensure that the reader is exposed to varied perspectives in conceptual models, disciplines, populations, and methods, as well as to nonmedical frames of ref erence. This book exposes the reader to role theories, the health belief and locus of control models, sociology of knowledge frameworks, path analyses, organizational theory, con cepts related to physical space, "health culture," as well as other conceptual paradigms. The contributors have training or professional involvements in anthropology, education, health education and health promotion, information sciences, nursing, medicine, psy chology, public health, social work, and sociology. DIVERSITY OF READERS This book is intended for persons in a number of fields who are interested in issues related to research in health behavior. These include researchers in the social and behavioral sciences who want to know more about health behavior in general, or particular aspects of it, or who want

Load more