Submission for OMB Review; 30-Day Comment Request; Self-Affirmation Construct Validity

SUMMARY:

Under the provisions of Section 3507(a)(1)(D) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for review and approval of the information collection listed below. This proposed information collection was previously published in the Federal Register on January 14, 2016, Vol. 81 pp. 1985 and allowed 60-days for public comment. No public comments were received. The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comment. The National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection that has been extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

Direct Comments to OMB: Written comments and/or suggestions regarding the item(s) contained in this notice, especially regarding the estimated public burden and associated response time, should be directed to the: Office of Management and Budget, Office of Regulatory Affairs, OIRA_submission@omb.eop.gov or by fax to 202-395-6974, Attention: NIH Desk Officer.

Comment Due Date: Comments regarding this information collection are best assured of having their full effect if received within 30 days of the date of this publication.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To obtain a copy of the data collection plans and instruments, or request more information on the proposed project, contact: Rebecca Ferrer, Program Director, Basic Biobehavioral and Psychological Sciences Branch, Behavioral Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, 9609 Medical Center Dr., Rockville, MD 20852 or call non-toll-free number (240) 276-6914 or Email your request, including your address to: ferrerra@mail.nih.gov. Formal requests for additional plans and instruments must be requested in writing.

Proposed Collection: Self-Affirmation Construct Validity, 0925—NEW, National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Need and Use of Information Collection: This information collection, seeks to refine a theory about how self-competence and values play a role in defensive responses to health communications. Although theoretically-driven research has shown that self-affirmation—a process by which individuals reflect on values that are important to them—can improve responses to health and cancer communications, the “active ingredient” (or mechanisms underlying effectiveness) of self-affirmations is unknown. Self-affirmation is a potent means of augmenting the effectiveness of threatening health communications. Individuals tend to be defensive against information suggesting their behavior puts them at risk for disease or negative health. Previous evidence suggests that self-affirmation may reduce defensiveness to threatening health information, increasing openness to the message and resulting in increased disease risk perceptions, disease-related worry, intentions to engage in preventive behavior, and actual behavioral change. Understanding the mechanisms that explain these robust effects would yield evidence important for dissemination, including ways to refine self-affirmation interventions and make them more potent, which could change the ways that public health messages are constructed. This research can inform NCI scientific priorities and investments in self-affirmation research. The results of the information collection will be used to further develop and improve self-affirmation theory. These findings may allow future researchers to develop and test cancer prevention interventions.

OMB approval is requested for 3 years. There are no costs to respondents other than their time. The total estimated annualized burden hours are 717.