Daughter-initiated health promotion messages: Persuasion for Health

If daughters were to persuade their mothers to obtain a mammogram or a Pap smear, what would be the components of such a message? Recently there has been research that suggests mothers might be willing to listen to their adolescent daughters if they were to ask them to engage in a healthy behavior. The traditional paradigm is that, within the family, advice on healthy behaviors, flows from parent to child. However, the purpose of this research was to examine the message components needed to develop a cancer screening message for daughters to give to their mothers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 32 African-American mother-daughter pairs from a mid-western city in the United States. Mothers were between the ages of 37-59 (M = 45.6, s.d. = 5.6) and daughters' average age was 15. Both mothers and daughters agreed that the best way to provide health information would be for the daughter to talk freely using her own words as well as provide the mother with written, factual information. Most mothers said they would want to hear advice about screening in a private setting (home, car). Furthermore, mothers indicated that a message that is based on fear would not be received successfully; however, a message that has been tailored based on family information and supported by group specific data could be effective. Developing innovative methods to promote healthy behaviors within the family is essential to address health inequities; therefore, the development of effective daughter-initiated health messages could significantly improve health promotion efforts.