Constructs and Measures Web Resource

One of the major impediments to the application and development of theory on precautionary and risk behavior is the lack of agreement regarding the definition and measurement of common theoretical constructs. A resource that defines the major theoretical constructs employed in research in health behavior research and provides information about common measures of these constructs would meet a variety of needs:

1. Advance theory-based basic and intervention research by providing common definitions, measures, and language that would increase the consistency of the application of theoretical constructs and facilitate discussion between disciplines.
2. Promote more practical, and yet theoretically and methodologically sophisticated research on health behavior by clarifying distinctions and commonalities between constructs.
3. Facilitate the research of new investigators by making measures, and information about their development, reliability, validity, and current use easily available.
4. Improve researchers' (including novices') ability to incorporate theory testing and development into their research.
5. Facilitate comparison of major elements of various theories in a way that would be useful to applied researchers and students.

The goal of this effort is to develop a web-based resource for health behavior researchers in public health, health communications, nursing and psychology that will provide definitions of major health behavior constructs, describe measures that assess these constructs, and provide information on the theoretical background, historical development, psychometrics, and common use of these measures.

A typical entry in the resource book could include:

1. Definition of the construct
2. Explanation (history) of its use, including discussion of its importance in various theories
3. Discussion of methodological issues relevant to the construct
4. Standard measures of the construct with discussion of their reliability and validity
5. Discussion of divergent opinions about the utility of the construct and measures
6. Conclusions
7. Citations of research in which the construct has been used in applied and basic researc