A Theater Intervention to Promote Communication and Disclosure of Suicidal Ideation.

Young adults from Montana have a higher rate of suicide than their national counterparts. There is a clear need for targeted interventions to address this disparity. The authors evaluate a community-based, narrative theater project designed to increase awareness and use of suicide prevention resources among eastern Montana youth. As a first step, seven group interviews with Montana young adults (n = 27) were conducted to identify current perceptions about suicide and suicide prevention. Interviews were conducted before and after subjects were exposed to a community-based theater production about suicide. Emergent thematic categories were organized using the four main constructs of the extended parallel process model. After the performance, participants expressed increased awareness of prevention resources; perceived susceptibility to the threat of suicide and depression; and self-efficacy for accessing help and assisting others. There were mixed results for perceived response efficacy. Implications and recommendations for intervention development are discussed.

How Social Media Comments Inform the Promotion of Mask-Wearing and Other COVID-19 Prevention Strategies.

Current COVID-19 messaging efforts by public health departments are primarily informational in nature and assume that audiences will make rational choices in compliance, contradicting extensive research indicating that individuals make lifestyle choices based on emotional, social, and impulsive factors. To complement the current model, audience barriers to prevention need to be better understood. A content analysis of news source comments in response to daily COVID-19 reports was conducted in Montana, one of the states expressing resistance to routine prevention efforts. A total of 615 Facebook comments drawn from Montana news sources were analyzed using the Persuasive Health Message Framework to identify perceived barriers and benefits of mask-wearing. A majority (63%) of comments expressed barriers, the most common of which were categorized as either misinformation about the virus or conspiracy theories. Benefits (46%) of mask-wearing were articulated as benefits to loved ones or people in one's community or saving hospital space. This paper analyzes the implications of low perceived threat accompanied by low perceived efficacy of mask-wearing to make recommendations for future prevention efforts.

Variations in Involvement: Motivating Bystanders to Care for Senior Citizens.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a senior service advertising campaign designed to increase volunteerism and financial donations among bystanders. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A cross-sectional mail survey was administered to 2,500 adults; 384 usable responses were obtained. Survey responses were analyzed by level of exposure and involvement in senior care. FINDINGS: High involvement individuals viewed the ads more favorably and exhibited stronger senior caretaking intentions. Low-involvement consumers were less likely to see their own potential contributions to senior care services as effective. RESULTS/IMPLICATIONS: It is argued that nonparticipants in prosocial helping may fail to notice the need (low awareness), fail to view the cause as urgent (low perceived susceptibility), or have low prior experience with the issue. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: A typology of involvement could be developed that can be used for audience segmentation in marketing health behaviors to bystanders. ORIGINALITY: With limited theoretical and practical guidance on how to motivate bystanders to engage in prosocial behaviors, health communicators and marketers are challenged to tap into the vital resource that bystanders potentially could provide. The research reviewed and presented here indicates hope for engaging the public to become active players in making the nation a safer and healthier place.

Preventing Suicide in Montana: A Community-Based Theatre Intervention.

PURPOSE: This study examined whether a community-based suicide prevention project could increase willingness to seek professional help for suicidal ideation among eastern Montana youth. DESIGN: Online surveys were administered at baseline (N = 224) and six months post-test (N = 217) consisting of the Risk Behavior Diagnosis Scale (RBD), self-report questions on suicidality, willingness to engage with suicide prevention resources, and willingness to communicate with peers, family members, teachers or counselors about suicide. FINDINGS: A comparison of means within groups from pre- to post-test showed increases in self-efficacy for communicating about suicidal concerns with a teacher, school counselor or social worker; increases in self-efficacy for helping others; and increases in response-efficacy of interpersonal communication about suicide with a teacher, school counselor or social worker. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Young adults need to be willing and able to intervene in life-threatening situations affecting their peers. In step with narrative empowerment education, personal experiences can be used to communicatively reduce peer resistance to behavior change. ORIGINALITY: Health communicators tend to rely on overly didactic education and awareness-raising when addressing suicide prevention. This research shows the importance of direct and personal forms of influence advocated by social marketing professionals.

Navigating the gender minefield: An IPV prevention campaign sheds light on the gender gap.

This article examines how differences in male and female views about intimate partner violence (IPV) contributed to divergent responses to a prevention campaign conducted in the western USA. The study examines focus groups (n = 22) and in-depth interview data (n = 13) collected during campaign development to shed light on quantitative results indicating that women (but not men) increased their perceived severity of domestic violence and awareness of services from pre-test to post-test, while male attitudes moved in the opposite direction. Results of the qualitative study provide the basis for the authors' conclusions about why reactions differed: (1) men's unwillingness to view abuse within a gender context limits men's ability to accept the inequity in statistically demonstrated male and female roles as perpetrators and victims; (2) male resentment of existing gender stereotypes contributed to a rejection of campaign messages that utilised gender prevalence statistics to depict images showing men as perpetrators and women as victims; and (3) victim blaming attitudes contributed to resistance to empathy for victims depicted in the campaign. The authors offer suggestions for future campaigns that foster agency among both perpetrators and survivors while confronting the structural barriers to enacting change.

Media interventions to promote responsible sexual behavior.

While the media have been used effectively to promote sexual responsibility in other countries for decades, few such opportunities have been seized in the United States. Mass media may be especially useful for teaching young people about reproductive health because elements of popular culture can be used to articulate messages in young people s terms, in language that won t embarrass them and may even make safe sex more attractive. Media can potentially change the way people think about sex, amidst cultural pressures to have sex at a young age, to have sex forcefully, or to have unsafe sex. Information can be communicated through a variety of channels--small media (e.g., pamphlets, brochures, and the Internet) and mass media--and in a variety of formats--campaigns, news coverage, and educational messages inserted into regular entertainment programming. Several international studies show that exposure to family planning messages through television, radio, and print media are strongly associated with contraceptive use. Domestically, safe sex media campaigns have been associated with increased teen condom use with casual partners, and reductions in the numbers of teenagers reporting sexual activity. Due to private ownership and First Amendment concerns, U.S. sexual health advocates have been working with the commercial media to incorporate subtle health messages into existing entertainment programming.

STD/HIV prevention for teenagers: a look at the Internet universe.

The objective was to determine how the Internet is used to promote sexual health among adolescents. Six key words were entered into three search engines producing 87,180 results. Three percent (n = 36) were educational Web sites targeted at teenagers and covered a range of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). These were content analyzed using sexuality education and usability guidelines. All sites addressed some STD information, but only two covered negotiation. Navigability results were mixed; only one third offered a site map. Sexual health educators may need to include more information on how to negotiate safe sex and improve Web navigability for teenagers.