The Impact of Generativity Awareness on Mid- to Old-Age Smokers in China.

Smoking remains a serious health threat to many mid- to old-age Chinese people. Many smoking interventions have been implemented in public areas, but smoking occurring in a private setting, such as at home, has largely been neglected. Generativity is based on evaluating the worth of one's life experience that can be passed on to others. This study evaluated whether generativity awareness can have an impact on smoking reduction. Five hundred and eight Chinese smokers were recruited and demonstrated their strong awareness of generativity, specifically general generativity (e.g., moral ethics), health-related generativity (e.g., living a healthy life), and smoke-free family generativity. The study showed support for a three-dimensional model for generativity, namely general, health, and smoke-free generativity. The three types of generativity varied in their effects on behavioral intention to reduce smoking and to encourage younger family members not to smoke. Family communication patterns also influenced behavioral intention to reduce smoking and to encourage younger family members not to smoke. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keep Doing the Good Work: Impact of Coworker and Community Support on Continuation of Breastfeeding.

Returning to work poses a challenge to new mothers' breastfeeding success during the first 6 months postpartum. While previous research has shown that breastfeeding-related workplace policy plays a significant role in women's decision to continue breastfeeding, the extent to which interpersonal factors such as coworkers' (lack of) support and stigma affect women's breastfeeding behavior is less understood. Through a cross-sectional survey with 500 working mothers, this research found that female coworker support of other women played an important role in affecting mothers' decision to continue breastfeeding after returning to work and contributed to breastfeeding self-efficacy. The findings suggest that mothers' perception of supportive coworker communication has an impact on sustained breastfeeding. Workplaces need to enhance the mother-friendly climate by encouraging and rewarding coworkers and providing support necessary for breastfeeding colleagues.

Influence of smoking norms and gain/loss antismoking messages on young Chinese adults.

INTRODUCTION: This study tested efficacy of 4 types of smoking prevention messages directed toward young Chinese adults based on message framing and the target of the message. The claim that social smoking is an entrenched behavior was also tested. METHODS: This study was based on a 2 (friends vs. self) × 2 (gain vs. loss) factorial design. Respondents were directed to a Web site, where they answered questions about demographics and smoking status and then read 1 of 4 experimental messages or continued with the no-message control condition. Descriptive and injunctive norms about the extent and acceptability of smoking were also measured. Dependent variables included measures of smoking resistance efficacy, susceptibility to the harms of smoking, smoking enjoyment, severity of smoking harms, and behavioral intention to smoke. RESULTS: Totally, 315 participants enrolled in a large Chinese university participated in this study. Overall, gain messages were more effective for smoking prevention. Participants were more persuaded to refrain from smoking by the friend-gain-framed message rather than self-targeted messages. Loss messages were largely ineffective both for smokers and nonsmokers. Participants who read messages about effects on friends indicated more susceptibility to the harms of smoking compared with participants who read messages about effects on self. Significant effects were associated with descriptive and injunctive norms for the intention to smoke. CONCLUSIONS: Future studies need to more fully investigate whether loss antismoking messages are effective in other contexts and with other moderators beyond those investigated in this study.

Ethical debate over organ donation in the context of brain death.

This study investigated what information about brain death was available from Google searches for five major religions. A substantial body of supporting research examining online behaviors shows that information seekers use Google as their preferred search engine and usually limit their search to entries on the first page. For each of the five religions in this study, Google listings reveal ethical controversy about organ donation in the context of brain death. These results suggest that family members who go online to find information about organ donation in the context of brain death would find information about ethical controversy in the first page of Google listings. Organ procurement agencies claim that all major world religions approve of organ donation and do not address the ethical controversy about organ donation in the context of brain death that is readily available online.

The healing web.

We focused on the computer-mediated communication (CMC) of social support in an electronic health discussion group dealing with menopause and midlife transition to show how vital support is to women who are trying to make sense of the change in their lives. We analyzed 2,000 messages, examining the type and frequency of support messages, how support was demonstrated, and how support was recognized by participants. We then provided evidence to show that a community of support had developed.