Journal article
The Role of Realism, Similarity, and Expectancies in Adolescents' Interpretation of Abuse-Prevention Messages
Health communication, Vol.25(3), pp.258-265
04/30/2010
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/113655
PMID: 20461611
Abstract
Scholars continue to identify the conditions under which exposure to alcohol-related messages predict related behaviors and outcomes. To examine this issue further, researchers used an experiment (n = 452) to investigate the role of participants' perceptions of prevention message realism, similarity, identification, and desirability in their expectancies regarding alcohol use and impaired driving. Results of the experiment indicated that exposure to the messages reduced participants' expectancies for drinking and driving and increased their efficacy for avoiding potentially dangerous situations only when the messages activated mediating variables. No overall difference existed between the treatment groups and the control group without accounting for participants' cognitive and affective reactions to the messages. These results indicate that campaign planners must consider individual differences in audience members' interpretation of messages in order to increase message effectiveness even within seemingly homogeneous target groups.
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Details
- Title
- The Role of Realism, Similarity, and Expectancies in Adolescents' Interpretation of Abuse-Prevention Messages
- Creators
- Bruce E Pinkleton - Edward R. Murrow College of Communication , Washington State UniversityErica Weintraub Austin - Edward R. Murrow College of Communication , Washington State UniversityRebecca Van de Vord - Center for Distance and Professional Education , Washington State University
- Publication Details
- Health communication, Vol.25(3), pp.258-265
- Academic Unit
- Strategic Communication, Department of; Program in Communication
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis Group
- Identifiers
- 99900548115301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article