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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Lela S. Jacobsohn, MA, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215-696-7699, ljacobsohn@asc.upenn.edu

In an experiment, researchers must take care to avoid diffusion between the treatment and control groups so that they are able to accurately measure the treatment's effects. Similarly, in observational studies, researchers must take care to capture not only direct exposure to a public health campaign's messages but also indirect, or second-hand, exposure, which can occur through campaign-related discussions, between one who has seen/heard the campaign and one who has not. Additionally, depending on their valence, such conversations about the campaign messages or subject matter can amplify or counteract and diminish the effects of direct exposure. Therefore, talk about public health communication campaigns can affect those with or without primary exposure to the campaign, and those effects can be consistent with or counter to the campaign's aims. Pursuing this idea, the study examines the effects of the nearly $1 billion National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign on 12-18 year olds. We hypothesize that the effects of anti-drug ad exposure on marijuana-use-related cognitions and intentions are moderated by frequency and valence of youth's drug-related conversations with their peers. Specifically, youth who have more frequent campaign exposure and pro-drug conversations will be more likely to show boomerang effects, in which, greater exposure to campaign messages leads to unintended pro-drug outcomes. Accordingly, this research proposes to account for, in part, the campaign's apparent boomerang effects on youth. Four nationally representative cohorts of youth were surveyed three times an average of 15 months apart. Interaction analysis is used; lagged regression analyses offer supportive evidence.

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