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Table 3 Quotes from young adolescent participants conveying major sub-themes identified from interviews

From: Sun-health behaviours and attitudes towards sun safety amongst Australian teenagers: a qualitative update

Sub-themes

Participant (P) quotes

Theme 1—personal sun health considerations

 1.1: Typical activities

“Leisure swimming, I like … I like going to the beach with my friends.” (P6, female)

“I was probably out back … a big, grassed area … playing with our pets.” (P10, female)

 1.2: Influence of weather

“Say it’s going to be 30 [°C] or something that day and I know that we’re doing lots of sport that day, then I will bring sunscreen in my bag and apply a bit on my face.” (P3, female)

“I usually use it [website with information on the predicted UV Index] when I have a sporting event on, or I have like PE in a later time of the day when I know I could get sunburnt.” (P8, female)

1.3: Sun protective behaviours

“We always make sure to put sunscreen on. Like it’s a habit.” (P6, female)

“It makes me feel more secure that I’m not going to get sunburnt. I’ve put sunscreen on … it’s a very low chance that I do get sunburnt if I do have sunscreen on.” (P8, female)

“Some days when I’m not sure whether it’s hot … I wait for Mum to tell me.” (P1, male)

Theme 2—attitudes towards sun protection

 2.1: General attitudes

“Well, I started packing um my sunscreen because I got really badly burnt one time and it was really painful.” (P3, female)

“Like they might say ‘I only ever get burnt like once a year’… but that still…triples your chance for melanoma disease. People do need to be informed in that kind of way.” (P8, female)

“It’s not so compulsory for me. Like it’s like I’m not scared of it or anything, but I know that it’s good for me…the reason I’m not scared of it is because nothing bad has happened to me yet…but I think if I had, I would be way more protective of myself” (P9, male)

 2.2: Hats

“I mean if you’re going out in public, some hats would not be okay to wear if they are sort of not really like modern type.” (P1, male)

“Yeah, girls don’t really wear hats because of their hair. Being a normal teenager worrying about that…” (P10, female)

“I think it’s a good [sic] because it like stops your chances of getting burnt.” (P3, female)

 2.3: Influences

“I don’t know if I’d want to wear a hat… like there’s no one else doing it, so…it would be different. But like I think if they made a rule to make it that you had to wear a hat, then like I’d have no problem wearing a hat.” (P6, female)

“The PE staff always have sunscreen and like as people go out, everyone puts sunscreen on.” (P6, female)

“Mum always says you need to put on sunscreen, otherwise you’ll have bad skin and skin problems when you’re older” (P6, female)

Theme 3—recommendations

 3.1: Knowledge gaps

“I don’t know too much about it, but I do know that too much UV can be harmful for you and that different sunscreens have different UV ratings and how much they’ll protect you.” (P5, female)

“I don’t really know much about it. I just know that like things with higher SPF is generally what you want to go for.” (P6, female)

 3.2: Online tool input

“Maybe some stories about people that have had too much exposure and what has happened to them. So that other people can get an idea that it’s better that you protect yourself from the sun.” (P5, female)

“How much UV rays you would get out in the sun … the maximum amount of time you should be out in the sun without sunscreen.” (P5, female)

“How much time people should spend in the sun each day so they get some vitamin D … and what could happen if you don’t have enough vitamin D.” (P5, female)

  1. PE refers to school-based physical education classes
  2. SPF sun protection factor