Table 2.
Descriptive statistics of the psychosocial factors
| Factors | Description | Example item | No. of items | α |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perceived vulnerability | Subjective perception of the risk of contracting a disease | Considering your usual handwashing practices, how high do you feel is the risk that you get diarrhea? (inverted) | 1 | – |
| Perceived severity | Subjective perception of the seriousness of the consequences of contracting a disease | Imagine you contracted diarrhea, how severe would be the impact on your daily life? | 1 | – |
| Health knowledge | Understanding of the causes and knowledge about the consequences of a disease | Can you tell me what causes diarrhea? | 3 | – |
| Cost beliefs | Perceived negative aspects of engaging in a behavior | How effortful do you think is it to always wash hands with soap and water at key moments? (inverted) | 7 | 0.80 |
| Benefit beliefs | Perceived positive aspects of engaging in a behavior | How certain are you that always washing hands with soap and water at key moments prevents you from getting diarrhea? | 2 | 0.77 |
| Affective beliefs | Beliefs concerning the feelings associated with performing the behavior | How much do you like washing hands with soap and water? | 5 | 0.72 |
| Social norms | Perceptions of other peoples' actions and opinions | How many people of your household always wash hands with soap and water at key moments? | 3 | 0.75 |
| Action knowledge | Knowledge about how to practice a behavior | What are the different steps to correctly wash hands? | 1 | |
| Self-efficacy | Belief in the abilities to perform a certain behavior | How certain are you that you can always wash your hands with soap and water at key moments? | 5 | 0.86 |
| Action planning | Specification of when, where and how to perform a behavior | Do you plan a quantity of water you have to collect for handwashing with soap and water? | 8 | 0.77 |
| Action control | Self-monitoring and effort to continuously evaluate ongoing behavior | How much do you pay attention to always have soap at home to wash hands with soap and water at key moments? | 5 | 0.93 |
| Remembering | Ease of remembering to perform a behavior at specific moments | How often does it happen that you forget to wash your hands with soap and water at key moments? (inverted) | 2 | 0.63 |
| Commitment | Subjective importance of the behavior | How important is it for you to always wash hands with soap and water at key moments? | 9 | 0.80 |
For factors with multiple items, Cronbach's alpha (α) for scale reliability and the number of items used are indicated. No Cronbach's α for knowledge is indicated because of the additive nature of the scale.