Understanding the behaviour of the target market: what do adolescents think about when asked questions about their behaviour in the sun?

We undertook a project to develop a psychometrically sound instrument measuring adolescent

sun-related behavior for use in the evaluation of a social marketing program. During the

preliminary stages, we conducted a pilot study to test the face validity of the instrument with

adolescents. Think-aloud sessions were completed with 24 adolescents. Results identified

gaps in our understanding of adolescent sun-related behavior. Adolescents interpreted

‘tanning’ as specifically lying at the beach in the sun, however also reported behaviours to

‘get a bit of sun’, suggesting adolescents and researchers have different interpretations of key

terms. The study highlights that use of the think-aloud technique can improve understanding

behaviours of the target market and improve the validity of measures of adolescent sunrelated

behaviour.