Social desirability and self-reported health risk behaviors in web-based research: three longitudinal studies.

ABSTRACT:

Background

These studies sought to investigate the relation between social desirability and self-reported health risk behaviors (e.g., alcohol use, drug use, smoking) in web-based research.

Methods

Three longitudinal studies (Study 1: N = 5612, 51% women; Study 2: N = 619, 60%; Study 3: N = 846, 59%) among randomly selected members of two online panels (Dutch; German) using several social desirability measures (Marlowe-Crowne Scale; Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding; The Social Desirability Scale-17) were conducted.

Results

Social desirability was not associated with self-reported current behavior or behavior frequency. Socio-demographics (age; sex; education) did not moderate the effect of social desirability on self-reported measures regarding health risk b

SUBMITTER: Crutzen R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2996374 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature