Biomedical subjects

Maria Luisa Lima

Publications and source records attributed to Maria Luisa Lima.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Age differences in control beliefs regarding health: control, strategy and capacity.

OBJECTIVES: A new model of perceived control has been proposed (Skinner, 1995) in which 3 types of control-related beliefs were distinguished: control, strategy and capacity. This model has not yet been applied to health issues. Hence, the main purpose of this study was to apply it to the health domain, exploring age differences in the way children and teenagers conceptualize control-related beliefs. DESIGN AND SETTING: A prospective age cohort study was carried out with older children and teenagers attending public schools in Lisbon's metropolitan area. METHOD: A newly developed instrument (HPCQ) was administered to 188 healthy participants (91 6th graders and 97 11th graders). RESULTS: Analyses of variance showed no age differences in individuals' strategy beliefs. Generally, children showed stronger capacity beliefs and a higher perceived control over their own health than teenagers. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the belief in being a lucky person was a central predictor of control in later childhood. In adolescence, chance-related factors lost their predictive power, and effort and attributes-related beliefs remained controls' primary predictors. CONCLUSIONS: These results emphasize the heuristic value of this recent conceptualization of control-related beliefs. Moreover, they contribute to the development of more effective and reliable health-related school-based prevention/intervention programmes aiming at these particular age cohorts.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Risk perception and technological development at a societal level.

This article tests the hypothesis that the exposure to the threat to societies posed by the introduction of new technologies is associated with a normalization of risk perception. Data collected in 2000 by the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) on environmental issues were used to explore this hypothesis. Representative samples from 25 countries were employed to assess the national levels of perceived threat to the environment associated with a series of technologies and activities. These values were correlated with economic indicators (mainly from the World Bank) of the diffusion of each of the technologies or activities in each country. Results indicate a negative association of risk perception with the level of technological prevalence (societal normalization effect) and a positive association with the rate of growth of the technology (societal sensitivity effect). These results indicate that the most acute levels of perceived environmental risk are found in those countries where the level of technological prevalence is low but where there has recently been substantial technological development. Environmental awareness is a mediator of the relationship between risk perception and the indices of technological diffusion. This result means that: (1) societal normalization of risk is not a direct consequence of prevalence of the technology, but is driven by awareness of technological development and that (2) societal sensitivity to risk is associated with lower levels of environmental awareness.

Journal Article↗