Purpose: In the United States, 36% of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers occur among men. HPV vaccination can substantially reduce the risk of HPV infection; however, the vast majority of men are unvaccinated. This study developed and validated transtheoretical model-based measures for HPV vaccination in young adult men.
Design: Cross-sectional measurement development.
Setting: Online survey of young adult men.
Subjects: Three hundred twenty-nine mostly college-attending men, ages 18 to 26.
Measures: Stage of change, decisional balance (pros/cons), and self-efficacy.
Analysis: The sample was randomly split into halves for exploratory principal components analysis (PCA), followed by confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) to test measurement models. Multivariate analyses examined relationships between scales.
Results: For decisional balance, PCA revealed two uncorrelated five-item factors (pros α = .78; cons α = .83). For the self-efficacy scale, PCA revealed a single-factor solution (α = .83). CFA confirmed that the two-factor uncorrelated model for decisional balance and a single-factor model for self-efficacy. Follow-up analyses of variance supported the theoretically predicted relationships between stage of change, pros, and self-efficacy.
Conclusion: This study resulted in reliable and valid measures of pros and self-efficacy for HPV vaccination that can be used in future clinical research.
Keywords: Decisional Balance; Health focus: medical self care; Human Papillomavirus; Manuscript format: research; Outcome measure: behavioral; Prevention Research; Research purpose: instrument development/validation; Self-Efficacy, Vaccine; Setting: school; Stage of Change; Strategy: skill building/behavior change; Study design: cross-sectional; Target population age: adults; Target population circumstances: Rhode Island, enrolled in college; Transtheoretical Model.