Using Risk and Protective Factors to Predict Adolescent Reactions to Anti-Smoking Messages

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar VI
  In Scholar to Scholar Session: Perceptions of risk in health decision making

Abstract

This study examined how predictors of adolescent cigarette use affect perceptions of anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs). Low-income freshmen (m age 14.72, N=367) were randomly assigned to view three personal testimony or second-half punch PSAs. Personal testimony PSAs were perceived as less biased and evoked more thoughtfulness than did second-half punch PSAs. Race, smoking behavior, attitudes and willingness to smoke predicted cognitive responses while gender, smoking behavior, parental monitoring and sensation seeking predicted message bias.

Authors

• Carolyn Brooks, University of Georgia

• Elisabeth Bigsby, University of Georgia

• Jennifer Monahan, University of Georgia

• Nancy Rhodes, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis