Development of an mHealth text message intervention to promote adherence to COVID-19 isolation recommendations for college students.

Important tools in preventing the spread of COVID-19 include contract tracing and adherence to isolation guidelines after a positive diagnosis of COVID-19. This is especially relevant among college students who are often away from support systems at home, living in high-density housing, and may not experience serious symptoms from COVID-19 while still contagious. As text message-based interventions have been found effective in addressing health behaviors among young adults, we conducted formative research to explore how text messaging could support students in adhering to isolation guidelines.

The Entertainment-Education Strategy in Sexual Assault Prevention: A Comparison of Theoretical Foundations and a Test of Effectiveness in a College Campus Setting.

Among the existing sexual assault prevention efforts on college campuses, few use mass communication strategies designed to simultaneously entertain and educate. Although many entertainment-education efforts are guided by social cognitive theory, other theories may be useful in entertainment-education design. Previous research has found that social cognitive theory and social norms theory can successfully influence participants' perceived norms and efficacy related to sexual assault reduction; however, whether such results can be replicated in a naturalistic setting and the extent to which the guiding theoretical foundation may influence outcomes remain unknown.

Establishing and adhering to sexual consent: the association between reading magazines and college students' sexual consent negotiation.

Content analyses have cataloged the sexual scripts present in magazines largely because of their perceived value to readers and their potential role as sex educators. Although it is generally agreed that magazines have the potential to influence sexual attitudes and behavioral intentions, the effects of this medium are not as frequently researched as are other forms of media. The current study tested whether exposure to magazines was associated with intentions related to sexual consent negotiation.

Health promotion messages in entertainment media: crime drama viewership and intentions to intervene in a sexual assault situation.

Popular crime dramas have tackled sensitive issues such as sexual assault with increasing frequency over the past 20 years. These popular programs increasingly demonstrate the emotional and physical effect of sexual assault on its victims, and in some instances they depict individuals being rewarded for intervening to prevent or stop an assault in progress. It is possible that this content could affect attitudes related to sexual assault prevention.