Session: Identifying Variables and Strategies to Guide Adolescent Drug Prevention Messaging (Society for Prevention Research 25th Annual Meeting)

4-042 Identifying Variables and Strategies to Guide Adolescent Drug Prevention Messaging

Schedule:
Friday, June 2, 2017: 2:45 PM-4:15 PM
Regency B (Hyatt Regency Washington, Washington DC)
Theme: Development and Testing of Interventions
Symposium Organizer:
Eusebio Alvaro
Discussant:
Jason Siegel
The Health Psychology and Prevention Science Institute (HPPSI) at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) conducts research to improve drug prevention messages. This symposium reports on three streams of research using diverse analytic approaches across different variables of interest.

The first presentation reports outcomes of a school-based study assessing the relative impact of gain/loss frame messages tailored to students in contexts where marijuana use is normative or non-normative. Adolescent participants engaged with a program delivering (in one 20-30 min. session) study elements: a pretest, randomly assigned drug prevention messages, and a posttest. Results indicate that use intentions of at-risk students perceiving marijuana use as normative were mitigated by gain framing combined with attitudinal feedback. Findings imply attitudes toward prevention messages can be reinforced or challenged successfully via feedback and gain-framed messages tailored to norm perceptions attenuate use intentions.

The second presentation reports on a series examining the relationship between trait reactance (tPR) and prevention variables. Studies consist of secondary analyses of data from school-based trials examining drug prevention message approaches with adolescents. Trials used a general procedure where participants engaged with a program delivering (one 20-30 min. session) common elements: a pretest, randomly assigned drug prevention messages, and a posttest. Results support consideration of tPR as an individual difference variable important to drug use prevention. tPR appears to be a predictor of use intentions and also serves as a moderator of responses to drug prevention messages. Moreover, it is related to parenting variables found to be important predictors of adolescent drug use.

The final presentation reports results of a study assessing how salient affect influences responses on TPB measures targeting marijuana use. Participants (N = 677) were randomly assigned in a 2 (mood manipulation: pleasant, unpleasant) by 4 (TPB measure: attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intentions) between subjects factorial design. ANCOVA revealed a significant interaction of marijuana use and mood manipulation on attitudes and subjective norms. The results support the hypothesis that salient mood states may impact key TPB constructs.

The presentations highlight variables that have seen little use in drug prevention messaging and reveal avenues for improving the development, and impact, of prevention communications. Moreover, these studies take into account differing audiences: young adolescents in environments where marijuana use is normative or non-normative, adolescents high in trait reactance, parents of young adolescents, and individuals in differing mood states.


* noted as presenting author
529
A Tailored Approach to Marijuana Prevention: The Role of Normative Perceptions and Message Framing
William D. Crano, PhD, Claremont Graduate University; Candice Donaldson, MA, Claremont Graduate University; Eusebio Alvaro, PhD, MPH, Claremont Graduate University; Jason Siegel, PhD, Claremont Graduate University
530
Trait Psychological Reactance in Adolescents: The Role of Parents and Responses to Prevention Messages
Candice Donaldson, MA, Claremont Graduate University; Ian Johnson, PhD, Claremont Graduate University; Eusebio Alvaro, PhD, MPH, Claremont Graduate University; William D. Crano, PhD, Claremont Graduate University; Jason Siegel, PhD, Claremont Graduate University
531
When Mood Matters: Mood Effects on Key Constructs in Tpb
Jason Siegel, PhD, Claremont Graduate University; Michael Lebsack-Coleman, MA, Claremont Graduate University