title: Testing the relationship between self-agency and enactment of health behaviors.
abstract: A theoretical review provides a rationale for examining self-agency as a developmental foundation underlying processes of self-regulated change and a potential moderator of intervention effectiveness among participants in a nurse home-visitation program. Self-agency is defined as the conceptual understanding of self as an agent capable of shaping motives, behavior, and future possibilities (Damon & Hart, 1991). Availability of a sample of 186 mothers who received nurse home visitation provided an opportunity to test the relationship between participant self-agency and enactment of targeted health behaviors. Self-agency items from the Pearlin Mastery Scale (1978) were used to differentiate mothers who endorsed self-agency from those who did not. Consistent with the theoretical premise, mothers who endorsed self-agency at an established threshold were significantly more likely to enact health behaviors promoted during nurse visitation. Results provide support for the relationship between the development of self-agency and enactment of health behaviors targeted by a nurse home-visitation program.
authors.affiliation: Washington State University, Vancouver 98686, USA.
authors.forename: Janiece
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: DeSocio
authors.forename: Harriet
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kitzman
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cole
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D011203:Poverty; D011247:Pregnancy; D011582:Psychological Theory; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013714:Tennessee