Targeting anti-smoking messages: does audience race matter?
Shannah Tharp-Taylor1, Craig S Fryer, William G Shadel
1RAND Corporation, USA. taylor@rand.org
Addictive Behaviors
|April 7, 2012
Summary
Race impacts how teens perceive anti-smoking messages. Decontextualized messages are more effective when tailored by race, unlike public service announcements (PSAs).
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Communication Studies
- Adolescent Psychology
Background:
- Adolescent smoking remains a significant public health concern.
- Tailoring health messages to specific demographics is a common strategy.
- The role of race in the effectiveness of anti-smoking communications requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if adolescents' self-identified race moderates the perceived effectiveness of anti-smoking messages.
- To compare the influence of race on decontextualized messages versus messages embedded in public service announcements (PSAs).
Main Methods:
- A sample of 94 never-smoking adolescents (African-American and European-American) participated.
- Participants rated decontextualized anti-smoking messages (text format).
- Participants viewed anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs) and rated their smoking refusal self-efficacy.
Main Results:
- Adolescent race significantly moderated the perceived effectiveness of decontextualized anti-smoking messages.
- No significant moderating effect of race was found for anti-smoking messages embedded within PSAs.
- Smoking refusal self-efficacy was not significantly moderated by race when messages were in PSAs.
Conclusions:
- Anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs) should not be specifically targeted based on adolescent race.
- Decontextualized anti-smoking messages may achieve greater effectiveness when tailored to adolescent race.
- Future research should explore the mechanisms behind race-based differences in message perception.
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