A Social Cognitive Theory Approach to Understanding Parental Attitudes and Intentions to Vaccinate Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine represents a path towards global health after a worldwide pandemic. Yet, the U.S.

Family Communication Patterns and Parents' Intentions to Vaccinate Their Child Against COVID-19.

This study explored how family communication patterns relate to parental knowledge about COVID-19, vaccine confidence, and intentions to vaccinate their children. Parents from 4 states (Ohio, New York, Georgia, and Texas;  = 702) completed an online survey in March 2021. Results revealed that conversation orientation was positively associated with both COVID-19 knowledge and overall vaccine confidence, which were both positively associated with intentions to vaccinate one's child.

Motivated and able: when is facebook used to seek friendship and social support?

When employing adaptive behaviors to a changing environment, ability and motivation work hand in hand. Our goal was to investigate how ability and motivation interact when utilizing Facebook for social support and friendship. We predicted that well-being and perceived social support would be negatively related to motivation to use Facebook for social support and friendship.

The Moderating Role of Self-construal in Culturally Reflected Fear Appeals.

Scholars have long investigated fear appeals as a way to improve persuasive messages, yet we still lack understanding regarding the role of cultural orientation in relation to fear appeals. In the current study, we investigate how individual self-construal influences responses to culturally reflected fear appeals in the context of smoking cessation. Using a 2 (reference type: self-reference versus other-reference) x 2 (smoking cessation program: individual program versus group program) experimental design, this study found that self-construal moderates the effects of reference type on perceived threat and perceived threat to freedom.

Headlines and hashtags: communicating science during an outbreak.

Science and medical professionals are often looked to as experts in the event of a health crisis, but relatively few have received formal training in science communication. We provide a brief review of the current outbreak situation and suggestions for engaging in reliable, effective science communication online.

How Older Adults and Their Families Perceive Family Talk about Aging-Related EOL Issues: A Dialectical Analysis.

For older adults, approaching end-of-life (EOL) brings unique transitions related to family relationships. Unfortunately, most families greatly underestimate the need to discuss these difficult issues. For example, parents approaching EOL issues often struggle with receiving assistance from others, avoiding family conflict, and maintaining their sense of personhood.

Friends don't let friends suffer from depression: how threat, efficacy, knowledge, and empathy relate to college students'; intentions to intervene on behalf of a depressed friend.

Mental health-specifically, depression-is of growing concern to health professionals and the public. Health messages can be used to increase the number of people receiving treatment for depressive disorders. The effectiveness of these messages may be amplified by including an interpersonal influence component, such as encouraging individuals to intervene if they suspect a friend or family member is suffering from depression.

Reducing depression in stroke survivors and their informal caregivers: a randomized clinical trial of a Web-based intervention.

Purpose/objectives: To develop and test the efficacy of a Web-based intervention for alleviating depression in male stroke survivors (SSs) and their spousal caregivers (CGs) that blends both peer and professional support.

Design And Methods: The research consisted of an intervention protocol evaluated by a focus group of rehabilitation professionals, a "think aloud" session conducted with female stroke CGs, and a usability test of the intervention's online features with 7 female stroke CGs. Efficacy of the final protocol was tested in a 2-group randomized clinical trial with a sample of 32 CG-SS dyads.

Threat, efficacy, and uncertainty in the first 5 months of national print and electronic news coverage of the H1N1 virus.

The authors conducted a content analysis, investigating the first 5 months of national print and electronic news coverage of the H1N1 virus. They collected all stories about H1N1 appearing in 6 national news outlets between April and September 2009. Of these stories meeting the analysis criteria, the authors randomly selected 200 for inclusion.

Hospice volunteer as patient advocate: a trait approach.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine traits of hospice volunteers that facilitate their success in this informal caregiving role, with the larger goal of alleviating the family caregiver burden and providing additional support to the hospice patient. To achieve this goal, a new scale was developed to tap into how hospice volunteers view their patient advocacy role.

Method: Participants were 136 trained hospice volunteers from the Midwest who had direct contact with hospice patients.

Everyday health communication experiences of college students.

Objective: The authors examined college students' day-to-day health communication experiences.

Participants: A convenience sample of 109 midwestern university students participated in the study.

Methods: The participants completed health communication diaries for 2 weeks, generating 2,185 records.

The emotional needs of care recipients and the psychological well-being of informal caregivers: implications for home care clinicians.

In this exploratory study, 77 informal caregivers of older persons in Ohio completed telephone interviews that included questions regarding their perceived difficulty providing emotional and physical care, perceived quality of care, demographic items including caregivers' health status, and a measure of their psychological well-being. Findings suggest that psychological well-being of informal caregivers is diminished when they experience greater difficulty meeting the care recipients' emotional care needs, are in poorer health, or are older. Suggestions for clinical implications and future research based on these findings are discussed.

The role of social support in the family and community integration of right-hemisphere stroke survivors.

The goal of this project was to understand better the communicative processes by which social support can assist right-hemisphere stroke survivors in the process of community integration. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 12 right-hemisphere stroke survivors and their family caregivers. The transcribed interviews revealed 7 challenges (physical, cognitive-perceptual, emotional, relationship, employment, financial, and challenges to activities of daily living) and three types of resources (formal external, informal external, and internal).

The working alliance as a model for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Rehabilitation and health care researchers are increasingly called upon to examine contemporary disability issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to (a) borrow from the counseling literature to introduce the working alliance, a model developed by Bordin [1] to facilitate positive therapeutic relationships; and (b) to discuss its application to interdisciplinary research. The authors, who represent the fields of nursing, rehabilitation, and health communication, describe characteristics of the working alliance and draw upon their experiences to illustrate the key components of effective working alliances (bonds, goals, and tasks).

A review and application of social scientific measures of religiosity and spirituality: assessing a missing component in health communication research.

Social and behavioral scientists in fields such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, nursing, and medicine have been investigating the relation between religious or spiritual variables and health outcomes for several decades. This article reviews a sample of the major empirical instruments used in this research, including extrinsic and intrinsic religiosity, spiritual well-being, and religious coping. The review encompasses suggestions for application of these scales to health communication theory and research associated with identity, self-efficacy, social support, and media use.