Our findings support the validity of women’s responses in this study, as behavioural theories predict that (1) interventions will affect the middle of a distribution before the extremes and that (2) the amount of change will be moderate. One lesson is that interventions may be most effective if targeted particularly towards those with less strong feelings about the most common barriers. Another lesson is that the intervention may need to emphasize mastery of doing one’s own breast examination. Hands-on teaching that includes practice, such as the Mammacare technique for BSE, is an effective way to increase the sense of mastery. Our results suggest that even one educational session, augmented by take-home informational materials and very brief quarterly contacts, can suffice.