The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1 - 51

RAs and Intentions to Refer

Generally, gatekeeper training has focused
on enhancing referral skills and knowledge
about risk factors (Garland & Zigler, 1993; King
& Smith, 2000). In order to recognize and intervene in problematic behavior, gatekeepers
such as RAs must know what the suicidal risk
factors are, be aware of available mental health
resources, and develop interpersonal skills used
in the referral process. Such knowledge and
skill-based training has shown successful outcomes in colleges and universities (Isaac et al.,
2009; Pasco, Wallack, Sartin, & Dayton, 2012;
Tompkins & Witt, 2009). Although knowledge
and skill are arguably important factors, they
may not be the only ones that play a role in
someone’s intention to refer students at risk for
suicide. We designed the current investigation
in order to explore underlying beliefs that might
relate to RAs’ intentions to refer an emotionally
overwhelmed student to counseling.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TpB) offers a
solid base upon which to build investigations
of belief-related factors that influence individuals’ intentions to engage in particular behaviors (Ajzen, 1991). According to this theory, a
person’s intention to perform a behavior is the
proximal determinant of performing the behavior. Intentions arise from three considerations:
(1) attitudes toward the behavior (e.g., “For me,
referring an emotionally overwhelmed student
to counseling would be a good thing”); (2) subjective norms (e.g., “Others will look down on
me if I refer an overwhelmed student to counseling”); and (3) perceived behavioral control or
appraisals of the ability to perform the behavior
(e.g., “I don’t know how to refer an emotionally overwhelmed student to counseling”). As

indicated by Ajzen (1991), “the more favorable
the attitude and the subjective norm and the
greater the perceived behavioral control, the
stronger should be the individual’s intention to
perform the behavior under consideration” (p.
188). Providing information is not sufficient to
change behaviors; interventions designed to
change behavior must be directed at its determinants (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, and
perceptions of behavioral control) and at the
sets of beliefs that underlie these determinants
(Ajzen & Fishbein, 2005).
TpB has considerable empirical support
(see Ajzen & Fishbein, 2005; Armitage &
Conner, 2001) within the college student
population and has been shown to effectively
predict college students’ intentions regarding a number of behaviors, including alcohol
consumption and binge drinking (Collins &
Carey, 2007; Cooke, Sniehotta, & Schüz, 2007;
Huchting, Lac, & LaBrie, 2008), safer sex
(Bryan, Fisher, & Fisher, 2002; Cha, Kim, &
Patrick, 2008), exercise (Gao & Kosma, 2008;
Rhodes, Blanchard, Matheson, & Coble, 2006),
and weight loss (Schifter & Ajzen, 1985).
More specifically related to the current
focus, TpB was used to predict college students’ help-seeking attitudes (Halgin, Weaver,
Edell, & Spencer, 1987) and intention to use
career counseling (Lepre, 2007). Additionally,
in a study using TpB to examine counseling
clients’ intention to refer their college student
peers to counseling, it was found that both attitudes and behavioral control related to making
referrals were significant predictors of student
clients’ intentions to refer (Hagenbuch, 2006).
Most closely related to the current study, TpB
was used to frame a qualitative inquiry into
RAs’ attitudes and intentions regarding reV O L U M E 3 9 , NO. 2 • 2 0 1 3

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 39, No. 2 & Volume 40, No. 1

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