Thesis
Using mobile surveys to evaluate sexual health messaging with sex positive or sex negative language and gain or loss frames
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2016
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100623
Abstract
The development and testing of health messages is profoundly important for the creation of effective interventions. Despite a need for robust methods when testing messages, previous research has typically used only one quantitative approach: long-form surveys. The main purpose of this study was to test whether a real-time sampling method, similar to ecological momentary assessment (EMA) on a mobile phone could collect message testing data as an alternative. The messages evaluated were sexual health messages. As more comprehensive sexual health education programs are adopted among colleges and universities, there is a need to evaluate what types of messaging are most effective. Two concepts were studied here: sex positivity, as well as gain and loss frames. Using an EMA-style design, 96 undergraduates evaluated 24 sexual health messages over the course of a week using their mobile phones. Participants received text messages with sexual health messaging and a hyperlink to a short evaluation. More than 90 percent of messages were evaluated, and a majority of participants preferred this methodology over a single, long-form survey. Further, sex positive messages, and those that were gain framed, were the best rated messages. This study shows that an EMA-style approach, while not without limitations, is a viable and important methodological approach for message testing, especially when intervention messages are going to be sent on a mobile platform. In addition, sex positive approaches, and messages that are framed using gains rather than losses, are preferred by college students for sexual health messaging.
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Details
- Title
- Using mobile surveys to evaluate sexual health messaging with sex positive or sex negative language and gain or loss frames
- Creators
- Jared Scott Brickman
- Contributors
- Jessica Fitts Willoughby (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Edward R. Murrow College of Communication
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525062301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis