Adolescents' health beliefs and acceptance of a novel preventive dental activity: replication and extension.

The Health Belief Model is currently receiving substantial attention in the field of health education, not only because the Model attempts to explain health behavior but also because it specifies variables which are presumed to be modifiable. This article presents data from an adolescent population which contradict both of these assumptions. In addition, the data suggest that compliance with new preventive dental activities seems to be higher for children who have practiced similar activities before, with some minimal but not high level of parental involvement. However, in general, both health beliefs and acceptance of new activity were relatively unrelated to prior dental experiences and behavior among these children.