Publications by authors named "Mary J Bresnahan"

Smoking remains a serious health threat to many mid- to old-age Chinese people. Many smoking interventions have been implemented in public areas, but smoking occurring in a private setting, such as at home, has largely been neglected. Generativity is based on evaluating the worth of one's life experience that can be passed on to others.

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Returning to work poses a challenge to new mothers' breastfeeding success during the first 6 months postpartum. While previous research has shown that breastfeeding-related workplace policy plays a significant role in women's decision to continue breastfeeding, the extent to which interpersonal factors such as coworkers' (lack of) support and stigma affect women's breastfeeding behavior is less understood. Through a cross-sectional survey with 500 working mothers, this research found that female coworker support of other women played an important role in affecting mothers' decision to continue breastfeeding after returning to work and contributed to breastfeeding self-efficacy.

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The negative health effects of smoking are especially problematic in China, where 30% of the world's smokers reside and where male smoking continues to be the accepted norm. Smoking resistance is an important issue for both smokers and nonsmokers in China, where there is widespread acceptance of smoking. While smoking norms have been studied extensively in China, the effects of smoking prevention messages based on descriptive and injunctive norms have not yet been tested with Chinese respondents.

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Memorable messages about body size can have profound negative psychological and emotional effects on body image and personal health. We found that both men and women recalled more negative than positive memorable messages about their body appearance and size. Participants who reported receiving negative memorable messages also revealed stronger current body dissatisfaction and poorer self-image than participants who reported positive memorable messages.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study tested four types of smoking prevention messages aimed at young Chinese adults, focusing on how framing (gain vs. loss) and target (friends vs. self) affect their effectiveness in discouraging smoking.
  • - Using a sample of 315 university students, the results showed that gain-framed messages, especially those targeting friends, were more effective at reducing smoking intentions than loss-framed messages, which were largely ineffective.
  • - The findings suggest that the perceptions of social norms about smoking significantly influenced participants' intentions to smoke and that further research is needed on the effectiveness of loss-framed messages in different settings.
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This study investigated what information about brain death was available from Google searches for five major religions. A substantial body of supporting research examining online behaviors shows that information seekers use Google as their preferred search engine and usually limit their search to entries on the first page. For each of the five religions in this study, Google listings reveal ethical controversy about organ donation in the context of brain death.

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We focused on the computer-mediated communication (CMC) of social support in an electronic health discussion group dealing with menopause and midlife transition to show how vital support is to women who are trying to make sense of the change in their lives. We analyzed 2,000 messages, examining the type and frequency of support messages, how support was demonstrated, and how support was recognized by participants. We then provided evidence to show that a community of support had developed.

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