University of Twente Student Theses

Het gebruik van rookmelders in Nederland: Toepassing van de Protection Motivation Theory “Een onderzoek naar cognitieve en demografische factoren die een rol spelen bij het adequaat beveiligen van de woning door middel van rookmelders

Bont, Maike (2010) Het gebruik van rookmelders in Nederland: Toepassing van de Protection Motivation Theory “Een onderzoek naar cognitieve en demografische factoren die een rol spelen bij het adequaat beveiligen van de woning door middel van rookmelders.

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Abstract:	Although smoke alarms are effective when it comes to quickly detecting a fire, it appears that there are still many households without the presence of a working smoke alarm. This is not only a problem in the Netherlands, but is also a topic of research in the United States and other European countries. Much research has focused on the question how the intervention should be designed so that it would motivate people to obtain, install and maintain a smoke alarm. However the effectiveness of these smoke alarm programs is often minimal and education alone seldom leads to behavioral change. For many health threats a social cognitive model is used to examine the determinants which accounts for behavioral change. This way it is know what should be communicated so that it would motivate people to engage in healthy behaviors. When it comes to the use of smoke alarms this is still an unknown domain. The purpose of this research is to identify the social cognitive determinants which are strongly associated with the intention to purchase a smoke alarm. To make this research also scientifically interesting the Protection Motivation Theory is used. This theory is originally proposed in the context of health threats but is also successfully applied to other risks like earthquakes and flood. However, studies applied to other risks are rare and mainly took place in the United States. Based on the constructs of the PMT an education about home fires and the use of home smoke alarms is designed. In an experimental study, where the experimental group is receiving the education and the control group a different text, the effects of the education have been measured. It was expected that the respondents in the experimental group should have a higher perception of perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, fear, response efficacy and self efficacy and a lower perception of response costs. It was also expected that the intention to purchase a smoke alarm was higher in the group who received the intervention than the intention of the respondents from the control group. However, no significant differences have been found. Because the education about smoke alarms had no effect on the social cognitions, the group with smoke alarms is compared to the group without smoke alarms. Do they differ in demographic or social cognitive characteristics? When compared on demographic factors no significant differences can be found. Comparison based on social cognitive factors reveals a significant lower score on Afstudeerscriptie Augustus 2010 Maike Bont 4 Master of Communication Studies response costs for the group with smoke alarms. The intention to buy a smoke alarm is significant higher in the group without smoke alarms. To find out if there are special groups for education further analysis are executed. Are there for example groups who are less convinced of the effectiveness of a smoke alarm? Besides tenants the education should be directed at women because they are more afraid of fire and are less convinced of their ability to install a smoke alarm. Nevertheless do they have a higher intention to purchase a smoke alarm than men. Despite the fact that the education was not effective in changing cognitions, it is possible to determine the factors that are the most important predictors of intention. Correlation analysis showed that fear, severity and response efficacy are the constructs where the education should focus on. Using regression analysis the applicability of PMT in the case of home fire and the use of smoke alarms is tested. Severity (physical), fear, response efficacy and response costs can account for 25% of the variance in intention together with income and ownership.
Item Type:	Essay (Master)
Faculty:	BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:	05 communication studies
Programme:	Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60453
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