Youth Message Development: Using the Theory of Active Involvement to Develop a Media Literacy-Based Substance Use Prevention Curriculum

Engaging youth in message development has been a primary component of the media literacy interventions developed over the past decade. Guided by the Theory of Active Involvement (Greene, 2013), the Youth Message Development (YMD) curriculum was developed for face-to-face delivery. Based on social cognition work, the theory argues that content and activities surrounding message criticism and message production are needed for media literacy interventions resulting in a curriculum model that was used to develop the lessons. One key feature articulated in the theory and applied in the curriculum is the role of planning substance prevention messages in both sustaining youth substance non-use and deterring future drug use initiation. Youth message design, itself, is seen as the prevention strategy. The curriculum targets substance prevention in youth age 13-16, focusing examples on pervasive alcohol, tobacco, and other drug advertising. YMD is a brief intervention to maximize dissemination, including flexibility to separate the lessons as needed or cover in one session. The curriculum utilizes multiple strategies to maximize targeted youth engagement with the intervention. Supported by evidence from two studies, YMD is now rated as effective by and listed on NREPP and was recently converted online for school-based delivery through D.A.R.E. America (REAL messages) and community-based delivery through 4-H clubs (REAL media). The conversion to e-learning was accomplished through multiple iterative phases and revisions in collaboration with community partners and included using target audience members in: focus groups, pilot testing of initial version, independent user ratings, additional pilot testing, and prospective testing. The online versions supplement the face-to-face version by providing additional interactivity and examples as well as, in the case of 4-H, an online contest to motivate message development and dissemination through social media and tracking of user engagement data. Thus, in REAL media, the 4-H version, both message production and diffusion are conceptualized as prevention strategies. The theory, curriculum and supporting research will be described in this presentation.