The Role of Emotion in Mammography Screening of African-American Women

Dominant theories that are used to predict health behavior ignore the role played by emotion in peoples decisions to seek preventive health care. This exploratory study describes how the fears of African-American women and their other emotions influence their response to mammography screening interventions. Thirty-seven (N = 37) African-American women in Central and North Texas completed face-to-face interviews and paper and pencil emotion scales. Findings from this study suggest that fear of breast cancer was the predominant emotional theme that emerged. Further findings from this study also suggest that women who had previously had mammograms expressed both stronger negative and positive feelings and emotions than women who had never had mammograms. In addition, women who had never had a mammogram expressed fear of radiation from the mammography equipment, and potential pain related to the procedure, as well as fear of finding out that they might have cancer. Feedback from these African-American study participants suggests that simply to hear a message promoting breast cancer screening is not sufficient to motivate African-American women to seek mammography.