An exploratory study of the influences that compromise the sun protection of young adults

This paper reports on an exploratory research project designed to gain a deeper understanding of the influences on ultraviolet radiation (UVR) behaviours among high‐risk young adults to determine what compromises the adoption of protection measures for this group. A dual approach using focus groups and the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique was used to provide personal narratives related to UVR behaviour for tertiary education students. Results from both ‘conversations’ were content‐analysed using an iterative ‘bootstrapping’ technique to identify key themes and issues. This exploratory research identified a number of key themes including effect on mood, influence of culture, the value of tans, unrealistic optimism, risk‐orientation, and the role of experience. This group felt that they not been targeted effectively by public health campaigns and did not fully understand the dangers of high‐risk UVR behaviours. Although a number of previous studies have investigated the relationship between knowledge and behaviour, and largely concluded that increases in knowledge do not lead to increases in adoption of protection practices, the preliminary findings of this study reveal that the knowledge and perceived self efficacy of protective practices is extremely high, what is lacking is the perceived threat and thus the motivations to adopt such behaviours. The conclusions drawn from this research indicate that there are a variety of important influencing factors that compromise UVR behaviours, in particular, the lack of perceived seriousness and severity towards long term consequences such as skin cancer. The recommendation to address the imbalance of ‘perceived threat’ and ‘outcome expectations’ is to focus on increasing knowledge of skin cancer, particularly susceptibility to skin cancer and the severity of the condition.