The Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation: Meta-Analysis and Test of a Process Model
Summary (7 min read)
Public Significance Statement 1
- This review indicates that relations between patients’ illness beliefs and important illness-2 related outcomes (reducing disease progression, improving functioning, promoting well-3 being, allaying distress) across studies are accounted for by sets of coping strategies 4 (avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, emotion venting, problem-focused coping, seeking social 5 support).
- The identification and interpretation of a deviation from the normally-functioning 3 physical and somatic self is fundamental to initiating self-regulatory processes to restore or 4 protect a state of health, or even protect life itself.
- Specifically, it is necessary to 16 understand the individual’s cognitive and emotional representations of the threat that initiate 17 subsequent coping procedures directed at threat and emotion management.
- The 21 mediational model may be informative in resolving inconsistent patterns of effects observed 22 in previous studies and may potentially inform practice by identifying viable targets for 23 intervention.
The Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation: Origins and Conceptualization 1
- The common-sense model was developed to understand how patients’ lay perceptions 2 of illness threats guide coping strategies to deal with those threats (Leventhal et al., 1980).
- The 16 progression to professional treatment may sometimes bypass both self-evaluation and self-17 management, when, for example, an acute event provokes immediate hospitalization leading 18 to diagnosis of illness, or when screening procedures identify diseases such as breast cancer 19 without any prior symptomatic information indicating to the individual that they are ill.
- If such symptoms occurred after visiting a region where malaria is prevalent, 25 they might activate representations of serious infectious disease associated with elevated 1 threat.
- The parallel arrowed pathways in Figure 1 depict links between the representation 15 dimensions and coping procedures.
- Consistent with the proposal that illness cognitions are 22 schematic in nature (Henderson, Hagger, & Orbell, 2007; Leventhal & Cleary, 1980; 23 Leventhal et al., 2011), studies have demonstrated that automatic activation of an illness 24 representation is associated with activation of relevant coping procedures (Henderson, Orbell, 25 & Hagger, 2009).
A Critical Appraisal of Research on the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation 13
- Hagger and Orbell (2003) tested the hypothesized relations among common-sense 14 model constructs in a meta-analysis of studies applying the model in chronic illness.
- The analysis revealed a consistent pattern of relations such that 19 representation dimensions that signal an elevated level of threat, namely, serious 20 consequences, illness identity, and a chronic timeline were positively associated with 21 emotion-focused coping procedures including expressing emotions and denial.
- Emotion-focused strategies may be more effective in these 12 contexts as they help individuals manage negative emotional reactions caused by the 13 perceived illness threat.
- The meta-analytic research indicates that these beliefs tend to 21 1Hagger et al.’s (2003) analysis did not include the emotional representation and illness coherence dimensions as few studies at the time had adopted the revised IPQ and there were insufficient studies reporting effect sizes for these studies.
- This will permit identification of the unique effects of each representation 3 dimension on coping and outcome constructs controlling for the other dimensions (cf. 4 Hagger, Chan, Protogerou, & Chatzisarantis, 2016; Hagger & Chatzisarantis, 2016).
A Process Model of ‘Common-Sense’ Illness Representations 6
- Central to the common-sense model is the assertion that individuals’ cognitive and 7 emotional representations of an illness threat will motivate a coping response to mitigate the 8 threat and related distress.
- Taking a 16 generalized perspective, evaluating the extent to which coping mediates relations between 17 representation dimensions and illness outcomes will provide a test of the sufficiency of the 18 model.
- Some mediation analyses revealed indirect effects 3 that did not conform to this pattern, but are consistent with Leventhal et al.’s proposal that 4 threat representations motivate problem-focused coping procedures and better illness 5 outcomes.
- Previous meta-analyses have observed considerable 1 heterogeneity in relations among model constructs (Broadbent et al., 2015; French et al., 2 2006; Hagger & Orbell, 2003).
- Illnesses vary in their symptomatology, impact on the patients’ life, chronicity, 3 and responsiveness to treatment.
Included Studies and Characteristics 13
- The literature research identified 333 articles that met inclusion criteria on initial 14 screening .
- The authors were unable to source the 17 unreported data for 39 articles, and several articles either reported data from multiple samples 18 within a single study or comprised overlapping samples (multiple studies using the same 19 data).
- Summary characteristics of the 22 included studies including sample sizes, study design, demographic details, illness types 23 encompassed by the studies, moderator coding.
- Studies were largely focused on older samples (median of the average sample age reported in 5 studies = 52 years) with most studies having approximately equal ratios of females and 6 males.
- Other 8 than measures of illness representations, coping strategies, and illness outcomes, a number of 9 studies also included concurrent measures of belief-based, social cognitive, and individual 10 difference constructs.
Classification of Illness Representations 19
- Studies were relatively consistent in the instruments employed to measure illness 20 representations, relying largely on previously-validated and standardized generic 21 questionnaires based on Leventhal et al.’s (1980) illness representation dimensions of cause, 22 control, consequences, identity, and timeline3.
- Due to the relatively small number of studies employing this subscale, the authors restricted their analysis to the timeline: acute/chronic dimension.
- In addition, some instruments (e.g., IPQ-R, Moss-Morris et al., 2002; BIPQ, Broadbent, Petrie, Main, & Weinman, 2006) distinguish between personal control and treatment control while others employ a single control dimension (e.g., IPQ, Weinman, Petrie, Moss-Morris, & Horne, 1996).
- In addition, the IPQ-R was translated, validated and 15 standardized for various populations.
Classification of Coping Strategies 22
- The present sample of studies used a large number of instruments to measure coping 23 strategies, many of which were based on cognitive-motivational-relational models of stress 24 and coping (e.g., Carver et al., 1989; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
- A sixth coping category, labelled problem-focused specific coping 13 strategies, encompassed active attempts to address the illness by means of specific illness-14 related coping behaviors, such as medication and dietary adherence, illness-related self-care 15 behaviors, and attendance at illness-related medical appointments .
- Inter-21 rater reliability coefficients indicated good agreement between the raters for each coping 22 dimension category (Fleiss-corrected κ = .91).
- Differences in classifications were discussed 23 among the raters with respect to the category definition and item content with resolution 24 based on consensus between all three raters.
Classification of Illness Outcomes 1
- Given the range of measures used to tap illness-related outcomes in the current 2 sample of studies, it was also important to categorize illness outcome measures into distinct 3 categories.
- Three raters 16 coded the item content of the illness outcome measures from the source instruments with the 17 operational definitions of the construct categories used in the current analysis with strong 18 agreement across raters (Fleiss-corrected κ = . 92).
- The authors conducted separate meta-analyses of intercorrelations among the 2 illness representation and coping strategy dimensions, and of correlations between the 3 representation, coping and outcome dimensions, resulting in 138 effect sizes4.
- The I2 is 17 the proportion of the observed variance in the averaged effect size relative to the variance 18 attributable to sampling error alone expressed as a percentage (Borenstein, Higgins, Hedges, 19 & Rothstein, 2017).
- Finally, the authors 2 evaluated the presence of small-study bias in the sample of effect sizes by computing 3 statistics based on plots of the effect size from each study against study precision (usually the 4 reciprocal of the study sample size).
Moderator Coding and Analyses 14
- Assuming substantive, non-trivial variability in the effect sizes of the relations in the 15 illness representation, coping, and outcome constructs unattributed to the statistical artifacts 16 the authors corrected for in the model, they aimed to examine the effect of moderators of the model 17 effects.
- Study design was coded as cross-sectional, longitudinal, or intervention.
- Studies describing the target illness or condition of the study as having 4 unknown or uncertain etiology, or if the symptoms of the illness or condition are known to 5 have unknown or uncertain causes, were classified as having medically-unexplained 6 symptoms with the remaining illnesses classified as having medically-explained symptoms.
- Studies meeting 6 quality standards were assigned a score of 1 for each criterion and those not meeting the 7 quality standard or provided insufficient information to evaluate the criterion were assigned a 8 score of zero.
- 11 Studies were scored on the checklist by a researcher with experience in the use of 12 methodological quality checklists6.
Testing the Process Model 5
- The authors used the meta-analytically derived corrected correlations to test hypotheses of the 6 proposed process model in which the effects of illness representations on illness outcomes are 7 mediated by coping strategies.
- This model assumes that the coping 16 constructs are sufficient in accounting for relations between the representation dimensions 17 and illness outcome.
- Given the 5 dependency of the statistical significance of their parameter estimates in their model tests on 6 sample size, the authors focused on effect size when evaluating the effects in their models.
- The authors also report the CFI for each model, with absolute values 11 for Model 1 illustrating the level of misspecification in the model when direct effects were 12 fixed to zero.
- Perceived control and illness coherence were 14 significantly and positively correlated.
Moderator Analyses 23
- The authors examined the effect of moderators on correlations among the illness 24 representation, coping strategies, and illness outcome constructs across studies by conducting 25 their meta-analysis at each level of the candidate moderators: study design, illness type, 1 medically-explained and medically-unexplained symptoms, illness stage, and methodological 2 quality.
- In all cases, the authors found little evidence for moderator effects.
- In addition, the analyses did little to resolve the heterogeneity in the 8 effect sizes with moderate-to-high heterogeneity according to I2 values and significant values 9 for Q observed for effects within each moderator group.
- Of the correlations that did exhibit 10 statistically significant differences, many included moderator groups with low numbers of 11 studies (k < 10); in such cases the confidence intervals, t-tests, and heterogeneity tests may 12 not be reliable.
- Overall, there was little indication of systematic variation in effect sizes 13 attributable to the candidate moderators in the current analyses.
Path Analyses of the Process Model 15
- The authors therefore rejected 18 10Correcting for methodological artifacts is known to increase the magnitude of effect sizes, perhaps more than is appropriate, which may lead to over- or under-estimation of the true effect sizes (see Johnson & Eagly, 2014; Köhler, Cortina, Kurtessis, & Gölz, 2015).
- Examination of the total indirect effects to establish the extent to 8 which the effects of illness representation dimensions on illness outcomes were mediated by 9 the coping strategies was warranted (Leventhal et al., 1980).
- 23 Based on this evidence, it is possible that both positive and negative specific indirect effects 24 would be present, and that these effects would amount to null or relatively small total indirect 25 effects.
- This was corroborated by the specific indirect 20 effects, which indicated significant positive effects of perceived control on these outcomes 21 mediated by generic and specific forms of problem-focused coping.
Sensitivity Analyses of Model Effects 15
- The authors conducted 17 sensitivity analyses to test whether the pattern of effects among constructs in their proposed 18 process model was dependent on levels of the study design, illness type, medically-explained 19 vs. medically-unexplained symptoms, and methodological quality moderators13,14.
- Goodness-of-fit estimates for the single 8 sample and multi-group path analyses of both models for each outcome variable and at all 9 levels of each moderator are presented in Tables 17 to 20 .
- This suggested that the proposed pattern of effects among the illness 21 representation, coping, and outcome constructs in Model 2 provided a robust representation 22 of observed relations among these constructs in the meta-analyzed data.
- Consistent with the 23 15Some of the effects in the moderator groups were tested by fewer than two studies so an averaged corrected effect size could not be computed .
- It also has potential implications beyond the model as relations between beliefs about 17 threat, emotional distress and coping are key tenets of other theories of stress and coping 18 (e.g., Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
Sufficiency of the Model 21
- The present research is the first to produce a full meta-analytic inter-correlation 22 matrix among the representation, coping, and outcome variables across studies adopting the 23 common-sense model.
- Illness-specific coping 16 strategies were expected to have closer correspondence with the representation and outcome 17 measures.
- Few studies in the current sample included such measures and the 18 measures inevitably captured only one specific coping strategy when a range of specific 19 strategies may have been relevant.
- Other coping strategies or unmeasured 25 extraneous variables may have served to mediate the direct effects of representations on 1 outcomes.
- Such patterns are likely to be adopted by patients 6 who are high on certain traits, such as perfectionism, and prone to distress (c.f., Limburg, 7 Watson, Hagger, & Egan, 2016).
The Function of Coping in the Process Model 16
- The total indirect effects of the cognitive and emotional representation dimensions on 17 illness outcomes were consistent with the general expected pattern of effects in many cases.
- Furthermore, 1 examination of the specific indirect effects revealed patterns of effect for illness 2 representation dimensions on outcomes that could not be ascertained from the total indirect 3 effects alone.
- These 16 findings suggest a pattern of effects among constructs in the common-sense model that is 17 more complex than that found in previous research syntheses.
- Previous research has also found 17 negative mediated effects of consequences on disease state and distress through problem-18 focused coping and self-nurturing coping procedures (Benyamini et al., 2004; Brewer et al., 19 2002).
- Current findings indicate that representation dimensions relate to multiple coping 20 strategies which have both positive and negative effects on outcomes related to illness 21 recovery.
Role of Context and Moderators in the Process Model 1
- High levels of heterogeneity were observed in the majority of the effect sizes in the 2 current analysis.
- A search for moderators was, therefore, warranted.
- The authors contended, consistent with theory and previous research on the common-sense 13 model (Horne & Weinman, 2002; Leventhal et al., 1980; Moss-Morris et al., 2011), that 14 contextual factors will moderate effects within the common-sense model.
- More primary research is needed that systematically tests the proposed 8 mediation effects in the process model in the presence and absence of the moderators.
- Resolving the unique moderating effects of these characteristics may require systematic 10 comparisons of the direct and indirect effects of illness representation dimensions on 11 outcomes through coping at different levels of the moderator.
Implications for Practice 11
- The identification of specific indirect effects in the current analysis has implications 12 for the application of the common sense model in practice.
- In some cases, targeting change in a given representation dimension 17 would be an appropriate strategy if the dimension was consistently related to adaptive 18 outcomes through the model pathways.
- Providing messages that highlight the serious 24 consequences of an illness to patients may lead to adaptive outcomes by prompting adoption 25 of problem-focused coping strategies, but may, in turn, lead to maladaptive outcomes like 1 distress and disease progression through avoidance.
- A solution might be to adopt strategies 2 that link the representation with the desired coping strategy.
- So while current findings may provide guidance for interventions, it is 22 important to consider such suggestions in light of the heterogeneity of the effects identified 23 and the likely context-dependency of the indirect effects.
Revising the Common-Sense Model 3
- The authors meta-analytic test of the process model has been instrumental in identifying the 4 prominence of particular illness representation dimensions in predicting illness outcomes 5 directly and indirectly through coping strategies.
- The basic mediation effects of the 6 process model tested in the current meta-analysis are depicted in the central section of Figure 7 3.
- In the revised model, medication beliefs are 6 expected to explain unique variance in specific coping behaviors (i.e., medication adherence) 7 alongside illness representations and beliefs about other coping behaviors (Figure 3).
- Problem-focused coping 21 procedures are depicted as a response to illness beliefs, consistent with the original model.
- Formation of action plans has been shown to be pivotal 21 for illness management by assisting individuals in the efficient enactment of an appropriate, 22 effective coping response to a threat representation (Leventhal et al., 2016).
Strengths, Limitations and Recommendations 14
- Fixed effects vs. random effects meta-analysis 16 models: Implications for cumulative research knowledge in psychology.
- A prospective examination of 5 illness beliefs and coping in patients with type 2 diabetes.
- Illness perceptions account for 11 variation in positive outlook as well as psychological distress in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
- The illness perception 7 questionnaire: A new method for assessing the cognitive representation of illness.
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Cites background from "The Common Sense Model of Self-Regu..."
...Hall et al. (2016) developed a Reactance to Health Warnings Scale studying the potentially negative effects of defensive reactions to cigarette pack warnings. They indeed showed that reactance may weaken the effects of warnings, confirming the existence of defensive reactions. Hall et al. (2016) also state that ‘it would be unwise to conclude that pictorial warnings are counterproductive simply because they produce reactance’; they suggest that reactance merely reduces the positive effect of the warnings despite that assumption’s inconsistency with the relevant theories....
[...]
...Hall et al. (2016) developed a Reactance to Health Warnings Scale studying the potentially negative effects of defensive reactions to cigarette pack warnings. They indeed showed that reactance may weaken the effects of warnings, confirming the existence of defensive reactions. Hall et al. (2016) also state that ‘it would be unwise to conclude that pictorial warnings are counterproductive simply because they produce reactance’; they suggest that reactance merely reduces the positive effect of the warnings despite that assumption’s inconsistency with the relevant theories. However, as they did not measure actual behaviour and did not study the effect of self-efficacy, their work does not provide evidence for that statement. Thrasher et al. (2014) studied the effect of cigarette package inserts with cessation-related tips and messages, which supplement the exterior pictorial health warnings. They showed that smokers who read the inserts a few times or more in the past month had a higher intention to quit and were more likely to make a quit attempt at the subsequent wave compared to smokers who did not read the inserts. Trasher et al. (2014) conclude that cigarette package inserts ‘may enhance the efficacy of pictorial warning labels’....
[...]
...Hall et al. (2016) developed a Reactance to Health Warnings Scale studying the potentially negative effects of defensive reactions to cigarette pack warnings. They indeed showed that reactance may weaken the effects of warnings, confirming the existence of defensive reactions. Hall et al. (2016) also state that ‘it would be unwise to conclude that pictorial warnings are counterproductive simply because they produce reactance’; they suggest that reactance merely reduces the positive effect of the warnings despite that assumption’s inconsistency with the relevant theories. However, as they did not measure actual behaviour and did not study the effect of self-efficacy, their work does not provide evidence for that statement. Thrasher et al. (2014) studied the effect of cigarette package inserts with cessation-related tips and messages, which supplement the exterior pictorial health warnings. They showed that smokers who read the inserts a few times or more in the past month had a higher intention to quit and were more likely to make a quit attempt at the subsequent wave compared to smokers who did not read the inserts. Trasher et al. (2014) conclude that cigarette package inserts ‘may enhance the efficacy of pictorial warning labels’. However, as pictorial warning labels were not manipulated in this study, the only conclusion can be that cigarette package inserts with cessation-related tips and messages (the only manipulated variable) have a positive effect on smoking cessation. This is exactly as would have been predicted from the earlier description of the theory and evidence: an approach based on self-efficacy in combination with risk perception. (Note, however, that the design chosen by Trasher et al. (2014) could only yield a dataset that is also consistent with the inserts being less effective as a consequence of their combination with pictorial warning labels....
[...]
...Hall et al. (2016) developed a Reactance to Health Warnings Scale studying the potentially negative effects of defensive reactions to cigarette pack warnings. They indeed showed that reactance may weaken the effects of warnings, confirming the existence of defensive reactions. Hall et al. (2016) also state that ‘it would be unwise to conclude that pictorial warnings are counterproductive simply because they produce reactance’; they suggest that reactance merely reduces the positive effect of the warnings despite that assumption’s inconsistency with the relevant theories. However, as they did not measure actual behaviour and did not study the effect of self-efficacy, their work does not provide evidence for that statement. Thrasher et al. (2014) studied the effect of cigarette package inserts with cessation-related tips and messages, which supplement the exterior pictorial health warnings....
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...Hall et al. (2016) developed a Reactance to Health Warnings Scale studying the potentially negative effects of defensive reactions to cigarette pack warnings....
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"The Common Sense Model of Self-Regu..." refers background in this paper
...…in personal capacity to perform the behavior (self-efficacy), and beliefs in capacity to 3 cope with difficulties or setbacks in managing the illness (coping self-efficacy), as indicated 4 in social cognitive approaches to behavior (e.g., Bandura, 1977; Fishbein & Ajzen, 2009; 5 Schwarzer, 2008)....
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Frequently Asked Questions (16)
Q2. What is the need for a stronger evaluation of the process model?
A stronger evaluation of the process model needs to include 14 multiple illness representation, coping strategy, and outcome measures simultaneously across 15 conditions and samples, and adopt appropriate multivariate confirmatory analyses (e.g., path 16 analysis, structural equation modeling).
Q3. How were the paths set to be invariant across the models?
In these analyses, paths among the illness 14 representation, coping, and outcome variables were set to be invariant across the models 15 estimated at each level of the moderator by imposing a set of equality constraints.
Q4. What software was used to conduct the meta-analysis?
The meta-analyses 10 were conducted using the MetaQuick (Stauffer, 1996) and Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 11 Version 2 (Borenstein, 2011) statistical software.
Q5. What are the factors that determine whether threat perceptions lead to problem-focused coping?
Contextual factors such as 13 illness familiarity and coherence may determine whether threat perceptions lead to problem- 14 or emotion-focused coping.
Q6. What is the role of control in influencing the adoption of coping strategies?
Control has been identified as having a pivotal role in driving the adoption of 16 problem-focused coping strategies, so the effects on outcomes were expected to be mediated 17 by the generic and specific forms of problem-focused coping.
Q7. How many indirect effects of illness representations are expected to be of interest?
Not only do the authors expect that quantifying the overall effects of illness 17 representations on outcomes mediated by coping to be of interest, the authors also expect to identify 18 specific indirect effects that will indicate the extent to which illness representations are 19 positively associated with outcomes related to recovery and effective management, or 20 undermine recovery such as poorer functioning and well-being, and elevated distress.
Q8. What are the consequences and identity dimensions?
The 15 consequences and identity dimensions emerged as consistent positive predictors of 16 maladaptive outcomes, that is, outcomes related to increased illness progression, greater 17 distress, and poorer well-being, and perceived control as a positive predictor of adaptive 18 outcomes such as better functioning and well-being, and reduced distress and disease 19 progression.
Q9. How does the synthesis help us to assess the influence of moderator?
In addition, the synthesis enables us to assess the influence of moderator 24 variables that may explain variability in relations among model constructs across studies.
Q10. What was the significance of the measures used to measure coping strategies?
21The present sample of studies used a large number of instruments to measure coping 23 strategies, many of which were based on cognitive-motivational-relational models of stress 24 and coping (e.g., Carver et al., 1989; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
Q11. What is the strength of the current analysis?
A further strength of the current analysis is their systematic classification and 2 coding of measures of illness representation, coping, and outcome across research adopting 3 the common-sense model in chronic illness.
Q12. What was the average of the correlation coefficients used in the meta-analysis?
In the event that a particular category of their 12 key variables was represented by more than one construct in a specific study (e.g., the 13 positive reintegration and acceptance scales from the COPE inventory were both classified 14 into the cognitive reappraisal coping category), the average of the correlation coefficients was 15 taken to provide a single test of the expressed relationship for use in the meta-analysis 16 consistent with Hunter and Schmidt’s (2004) methods.
Q13. What is the typical pattern of relations between representations, coping, and outcomes?
The typical pattern of relations between representations, coping, and outcomes 8 derived from previous research neglects to account for the moderating influence of contextual 9factors.
Q14. What type of illness was classified as having medically-unexplained symptoms?
Studies describing the target illness or condition of the study as having 4 unknown or uncertain etiology, or if the symptoms of the illness or condition are known to 5 have unknown or uncertain causes, were classified as having medically-unexplained 6 symptoms with the remaining illnesses classified as having medically-explained symptoms.
Q15. What does Horne et al. (1999) contend about medication adherence?
Horne et al. (1999) contend 25that medication adherence (e.g., taking anti-hypertension tablets to manage blood pressure) is 1 a function of specific beliefs about the effectiveness (e.g., taking tablets reduces blood 2 pressure at the next test) and drawbacks (e.g., debilitating side-effects of taking the tablets) of 3 medication.
Q16. How many direct effects of identity on illness outcomes were found?
There were also 7 statistically significant non-trivial positive direct effects of identity on avoidance, cognitive 8 reappraisal, and emotion venting.