{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]],"date-time":"2026-06-09T06:02:51Z","timestamp":1780984971736,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]],"date-time":"2026-06-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780963200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Purpose<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study aimed to investigate the role of psychological courage (PC)\u2014understood as the willingness to act despite fear or anxiety\u2014in predicting women's intentions to undergo mammography screening. While PC has been linked to adaptive behavior in challenging contexts, its relevance in preventive healthcare remains largely unexplored.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A sample of 292 women aged 45\u201374 with no history of breast cancer completed measures assessing PC, anxiety, cancer worry, perceived risk, and past screening behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine whether PC predicted screening intentions above and beyond traditional psychological predictors.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>PC emerged as a significant predictor of the intention to undergo mammography, even after accounting for anxiety, cancer worry, perceived risk, and prior screening. No evidence was found for interaction effects between PC and negative emotional variables.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These findings challenge fear-based models of health behavior by highlighting the role of positive psychological traits\u2014specifically courage\u2014in motivating preventive actions. As a potentially modifiable trait, PC may serve as a novel target for health communication and intervention strategies aimed at increasing participation in cancer screening programs.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1778940","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]],"date-time":"2026-06-09T05:41:39Z","timestamp":1780983699000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Dare to take care of yourself: the relationship between psychological courage and the intention to undergo mammography screening"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Grzegorz","family":"Pajestka","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Psychology, Opole University","place":["Opole, Poland"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Katarzyna","family":"Ska\u0142acka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Psychology, Opole University","place":["Opole, Poland"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1353\/ppp.1997.0008","article-title":"Psychological courage","volume":"4","author":"Putman","year":"1997","journal-title":"Phil Psych Psychol"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"67","DOI":"10.1037\/12168-004","article-title":"Is courage an accolade or a process? 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