Threat Appraisal Coping Appraisal and Secure Networking Intention among Technology Users in Bangladesh: An Exploratory Survey Analysis

Source abstract

Protection motivation theory distinguishes perceived threat from evaluations of protective responses, but interpreting their relationships requires dependable measures. This exploratory cross-sectional study assessed measurement quality and appraisal-related associations with secure networking practice intention in 385 complete questionnaire records from Bangladesh. Threat appraisal, coping appraisal and intention were represented by their respective three-item means. Internal consistency, heterotrait–monotrait ratios and a bounded covariance diagnostic were examined before hierarchical regression with HC3 standard errors, 2,000 bootstrap resamples and ten-fold cross-validation. Threat appraisal was positively associated with intention (b = 0.233, 95% CI 0.138–0.328), as was coping appraisal (b = 0.347, 95% CI 0.254–0.440). The interaction was unsupported (b = 0.002, p = .981), and the additive model performed slightly better in held-out prediction. Measurement evidence was inadequate: Cronbach’s alpha ranged from .358 to .432, average variance extracted from .192 to .229, and all construct-pair HTMT ratios exceeded .90. The positive coefficients consequently describe associations among labelled observed scores and cannot establish distinct appraisal mechanisms. The contribution is an assessment of the mismatch between the proposed construct structure and the available indicators, together with a transparent comparison of additive and interactive specifications. Future studies should validate differentiated measures and examine observed protective behaviour before deriving intervention recommendations.