Resistance to health promotion: a preliminary comparative investigation of British and Australian students

Abstract

Recent empirical and theoretical research suggests increasing resistance by the general public to health promotion messages and interventions. Using the recently developed “health resistance scale” this paper presents the comparative results obtained in a number of different samples. The main objective is to assess the extent to which “health resistance” differs amongst these samples. In addition, the paper provides further clarification of the concept of “health resistance”. The HR scale was distributed in the form of a questionnaire to two student samples, one from the University of Manchester, UK (n=167), the other from the University of Sydney, Australia (n=188). In each sample, students were selected from the three different faculties of arts, business and dentistry. Results from the random sample on which the original HR measure was developed are compared. Measures of health perception, health behaviours and psychological reactance were also obtained.

Citation

Crossley, M.L. (2002), "Resistance to health promotion: a preliminary comparative investigation of British and Australian students", Health Education, Vol. 102 No. 6, pp. 289-299. https://doi.org/10.1108/09654280210446838