Testing the relationship between self-agency and enactment of health behaviors.

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. Copyright 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.