Behaviors, beliefs, distress, and worry in the overall study population
intentional tanning, sunburned, sunburn, sunburns, SD, skin cancer worry, skin cancer
SKIN CANCER, OF SKIN CANCER
Participants reported an average of 1.70 h/day (SD = 1.62) of weekday sun exposure, 2.02 h/day (SD = 1.62) of weekend sun exposure, and rare outdoor intentional tanning (M = 1.65, SD = 0.87) over the past year. Nearly a third of participants (29.7%) reported ever having a sunburn in the past 12 months, with an average of 1.71 sunburns (SD = 1.01) among those ever sunburned. Only 2.3% of participants reported indoor tanning in the past year. Wearing of sleeved shirts was practiced often or always by a majority (61.2%) of participants, nearly half (47.9%) wore sunglasses, and 40.8% sought shade or used an umbrella; less than a quarter of participants wore a hat (17.4%) or used sunscreen (22.6%) often or always. The average total number of the five sun protection behaviors practiced often or always over the past year was 1.91 (SD = 1.27).Participants had a low average skin cancer worry (M = 1.99, SD = 0.83, Table 1). One-fifth (20.8%) of participants reported recently worrying about skin cancer sometimes to all the time, while a quarter (26.8%) reported recently being a bit to very concerned. About a third (31.8%) of participants reported being likely to get skin cancer, and 11.2% believed their chances of getting skin cancer to be above or well above the average. There was a modest level of perceived severity (M = 2.48, SD = 0.40) of skin cancer, and high levels of response efficacy (M = 3.32, SD = 0.71) and self-efficacy (M = 3.40, SD = 0.59). Participants had low mean levels of recent distress about skin cancer (M = 7.50, SD = 12.0).