Depression's response to fear tactics: An integration of health promotion principles, eye-tracking technology and clinical tools.

Objective: The main objective of this study was to utilize eye-tracking technology and self-report measures to test the effectiveness of varying strengths of fear appeals when educating about the seriousness of depression and motivate depressed individuals to engage in health-information-seeking.

Methods: We analyzed data from 117 university employees affected by a range of depression symptoms who were randomly assigned to a low-threat, moderate threat, and high-threat message condition in a lab-based experimental setting. Attention patterns were captured while participants viewed the health message.

Testing the Validity of Campaign Ad Exposure Measures: A Family Planning Media Campaign in Pakistan.

Although prior research has tested the nomological validity of media campaign exposure, including the related comparative validity of some measures, it has not well studied predictive validity or made extensions to other types of media campaign exposure. To help build on research in this area, the current study tested the nomological and predictive validity of 5 ad recall and recognition measures specific to the Touch condom media campaign in Pakistan. Between-effects regression of panel survey data confirmed the nomological validity of each of the 5 measures of Touch ad exposure.

Impulsivity partially mediates the relationship between BIS/BAS and risky health behaviors.

Several theorists have suggested that impulsivity can be understood as a joint function of the behavioral approach (BAS) and behavioral inhibition systems (BIS). After resolving questions concerning the measurement of impulsivity and BAS, this study examined the relationships among risky health behaviors, impulsivity, BIS, and BAS. Utilizing a sample of undergraduates (N = 904), a structural model was tested in which BAS and BIS predicted impulsivity, which, in turn, predicted risky behavior.

The University Worksite Organ Donation Project: a comparison of two types of worksite campaigns on the willingness to donate.

To test the impact of different campaign strategies, a year-long campaign was conducted to promote organ donation among university faculty, staff, and students. Two universities were assigned to each of three conditions: a media-only campaign, a mass media-plus-interpersonal outreach condition, and a control condition. Universities were counter-balanced by geographic region and diversity of population.

Religiosity, anxiety, and discussions about organ donation: understanding a complex system of associations.

An increasingly large research base on religiosity has shown it to have a buffering effect on anxiety. In a separate vein, scholars interested in organ donation have suggested that both religiosity and anxiety play roles in individuals' willingness to seek information concerning their decisions about organ donations with their family-an event that greatly increases donation rates. This investigation presents 2 studies that examine the associations between religiosity and anxiety (variously measured), on the one hand, and anxiety and individual's information seeking behaviors with family members about organ donation on the other.

The role of religiosity, religious norms, subjective norms, and bodily integrity in signing an organ donor card.

This article examines the influence of religiosity, religious norms, subjective norms, and bodily integrity (the extent to which people think the body should remain unaltered after death) on intent to donate organs postmortem. A total of 4,426 participants from 6 universities completed surveys for this study. The results indicate that religiosity and religious norms had a nonsignificant effect on willingness to donate.

An examination of antecedents to coal miners' hearing protection behaviors: a test of the theory of planned behavior.

Problem: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's [NIOSH] National Occupational Research Agenda (DHHS Publication No. 96-115) reports that approximately 50% of miners will experience hearing loss by age 50, compared to only 9% of the general population. The present investigation examines three antecedents believed to be associated with miner's use of hearing protection.

Facts versus 'Feelings': how rational is the decision to become an organ donor?

Researchers are already aware that decision making about health issues is not necessarily driven by rational or cognitive-based decision-making processes. This appears to be especially true for the decision to donate organs. Although hints about what is actually driving the decision-making process are scattered throughout the literature, noncognitive factors have not been tested systematically.

In their own words: the reasons why people will (not) sign an organ donor card.

This multisite, qualitative study of 78 family-pair dyads provides rich data on the reasons people cite for (not) wanting to sign an organ donor card in the context of family conversations. In this study, dyads were videotaped as they discussed 8 questions pertaining to their views on organ donation, beginning with the most general opinions and progressing to more detailed questions. Analysis of the transcribed data revealed that the most common reasons for wanting to donate organs were based on religion or a desire to help other people in need.

The reliability and validity of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS-8) with young adult Latino workers: implications for tobacco and alcohol disparity research.

Aim: This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS-8) in both English and Spanish with Latinos, the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, and the correlation between sensation seeking and tobacco and alcohol use.

Design: Cross-sectional survey, computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI).

Setting: Dallas and Houston, Texas.

Authoritative parenting and issue involvement as indicators of ad recall: an empirical investigation of anti-drug ads for parents.

This investigation explores the role of authoritative parenting and issue involvement in regard to the recall of parental anti-drug ads encouraging child monitoring. In addition, the study tested whether issue involvement mediates the association between authoritative parenting and recall of parental anti-drug television ads among parents (N = 185) with adolescents in Grades 6, 7, and 8. The results indicate that (a) authoritative parenting is positively associated with favorable attitudes toward monitoring children and issue involvement regarding adolescent drug use, (b) issue involvement is associated with ad recall, (c) issue involvement mediates the relationship between authoritative parenting and ad recall, (d) ad recall is not associated with favorable attitudes toward parental monitoring, and (e) favorable attitudes regarding parental monitoring are positively associated with intentions to engage in monitoring within the next 6 months.

Effects of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's Marijuana Initiative Campaign on high-sensation-seeking adolescents.

Objectives: We evaluated the effects of the Marijuana Initiative portion of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign on high-sensation-seeking and low-sensation-seeking adolescents.

Methods: Personal interviews were conducted via laptop computers with independent monthly random samples of 100 youths from the same age cohort in each of 2 moderate-sized communities over 48 months (April 1999-March 2003) of the campaign, including the critical first 6 months of the 9-month initiative. The start of the initiative was treated as an "interruption" in time-series analyses of the combined community sample.

Authoritative parenting and sensation seeking as predictors of adolescent cigarette and marijuana use.

Adolescents with high sensation-seeking tendencies often seek out thrill seeking experiences to satisfy their need for stimulation and sensation. In many cases, sensation-seeking adolescents fulfill their need for stimulation and sensation by using illicit substances. However, not all high sensation seekers use drugs, although the factors that prevent or buffer sensation seeking remain unexplored.

On the use of structural equation modeling in health communication research.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a multivariate technique suited for testing proposed relations between variables. In this article, the authors discuss the potential for SEM as a tool to advance health communication research both statistically and conceptually. Specifically, the authors discuss the advantages that latent variable modeling in SEM affords researchers by extracting measurement error.

Parent ads in the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign aims not only to reduce drug use by teens and preteens, but also to arm parents with knowledge about specific parenting practices known to reduce the risk of teen drug use. Among the documented successes of the campaign to date was a small, but direct effect on some parenting practices, including parent-child discussions about drug use. To reach a deeper understanding about the substance of the parental ads, we content analyzed the message strategies employed in the campaign's parent ads over the inaugural 5 years of the campaign.

Family discussions about organ donation: how the media influences opinions about donation decisions.

In this study, 78 family pair dyads (spouses, parent-child pairs, or siblings) were brought into an interaction laboratory set up like a living room. After being briefed on the study, family members discussed a series of eight questions about their thoughts and opinions about organ donation. Thematic analysis of the thousands of pages of transcripts revealed that family members believe that they receive important information about organ donation through the media.

Authoritative parenting and drug-prevention practices: implications for antidrug ads for parents.

This research employed the theory of reasoned action to investigate the role of authoritative parenting in 3 drug-prevention behaviors: (a) parental monitoring, (b) parent-child discussions, and (c) awareness of the child's environment. A phone survey of 158 parents of adolescents in 7th, 9th, and 11th grades revealed that authoritative parenting was correlated with parenting practices that reduce the likelihood of adolescent drug use, including discussing family rules about drugs, discussing strategies to avoid drugs, discussing those in trouble with drugs, parental monitoring, knowing the child's plans for the coming day, and personally knowing the child's friends well. Additionally, authoritative parenting moderated the attitude-behavioral intention relation for parental monitoring and awareness of the child's environment, with the weakest relation detected for low-authoritative parents.

Using persuasive messages to encourage voluntary hearing protection among coal miners.

Introduction: This longitudinal field study was designed to encourage Appalachian coal miners in West Virginia and Pennsylvania to engage in hearing-protection behaviors.

Method: Participants were mailed postcards that featured either a positive, negative, or neutral message on the outside of the postcard and a message encouraging hearing protection behaviors on the inside. The first posttest measurement of the effectiveness of the persuasive messages was conducted about a week after the postcards were mailed.

Mass media strategies targeting high sensation seekers: what works and why.

Objectives: To examine strategies for using the mass media effectively in drug prevention campaigns targeting high sensation seekers.

Methods: Both experimental lab and field studies were used to develop a comprehensive audience segmentation strategy targeting high sensation seekers.

Results: A 4-pronged targeting strategy employed in an antimarijuana media campaign yielded significant drops in 30-day marijuana use by adolescents.

Brief measures of sensation seeking for screening and large-scale surveys.

Sensation seeking is central to research on the prevention of risky health behaviors, but current measures of sensation seeking are fairly long, thereby reducing their chances of inclusion in some research projects. Hence, we developed and evaluated two brief indices of sensation seeking, a four-item measure that retains the framework of the Sensation Seeking Scale-Form V (SSS-V) and a shorter two-item measure focusing on the risk-taking elements of sensation seeking. We compared the performance of the new indices with that of two well documented but longer measures of sensation seeking.

Perceived message sensation value (PMSV) and the dimensions and validation of a PMSV scale.

Sensation seeking has been linked to drug abuse and risky behaviors, and is positively associated with preferences for messages high in sensation value (i.e., perceived to be highly novel, arousing, dramatic, or intense).

Predictors of exposure from an antimarijuana media campaign: outcome research assessing sensation seeking targeting.

Using data from a large-scale antimarijuana media campaign, this investigation examined the demographic and psychographic variables associated with exposure to public service announcements designed to target high sensation-seeking adolescents. The literature on sensation seeking indicates that adolescents high in this trait are at greater risk for substance abuse. Analyses assessed the predictive utility of various risk and protective factors, normative influences, demographic variables, and marijuana-related attitudes, intentions, and behaviors on campaign message exposure.