Grant Details
Grant Number: |
3R01CA192652-05S1 Interpret this number |
Primary Investigator: |
Buller, David |
Organization: |
Klein Buendel, Inc. |
Project Title: |
Likes Pins and Views: Engaging Moms on Teen Indoor Tanning Thru Social Media |
Fiscal Year: |
2020 |
Abstract
Social media has dramatically changed the Internet landscape. Users gather information and actively
disseminate it, influencing information spread and credibility. Our team is evaluating the effectiveness of
employing social media in a public health campaign directed to mothers of adolescent daughters with the goal
of decreasing indoor tanning (IT) by adolescent girls. This research is significant because many health agencies
and organizations rely on social media yet there is a paucity of research on their potential effectiveness. Project
specific aims are to: 1) develop and implement a social media campaign for mothers on health and wellness of
adolescent daughters that includes theory-based messaging advocating adolescent girls avoid IT and 2)
evaluate the effectiveness of the IT messages at a) decreasing mothers' permissiveness for daughters to indoor
tan and daughters' perceptions of their permissiveness, b) reducing the prevalence of IT by mothers and
daughters, and c) increasing the number of mothers who support strengthening bans on IT by minors. Mother
(n=869) were recruited in 34 U.S. states without a full ban on IT by minors and enrolled in a randomized
controlled design. The 12-month campaign, named Health Chat, contained over 700 posts addressing mother-
daughter communication and other adolescent health and lifestyle topics. It was delivered to mothers through
Facebook private groups, each receiving 180 experimental posts on either IT prevention (intervention; n=435
mothers) or prescription drug abuse prevention (control; n=434 mothers). Mothers and daughters were
assessed at baseline and 12- and 18-months post-randomization. The goal of this competitive revision is to
examine the potential impact of social media messages on the COVID-19 response. Many Americans are
receiving COVID-19 information over social media but are exposed to substantial misinformation. Effective
risk communication relies on using highly credible information sources to ensure that consumers engage in
practices that will reduce risk such as social distancing behavior and COVID-19 vaccine intentions, if available.
We will enroll mothers (n=300) from the original trial sample in a new experiment that aims to: 1) test a social
media feed impact on COVID-19 mitigation behaviors (i.e., social distancing) and vaccination intentions and 2)
evaluate whether source of social media messages modifies the change in mothers' COVID-19 mitigation and
vaccination intentions. Based on the principles of risk communication, pandemic response, and the Extended
Parallel Process Model, the 9-week social media feed will cover mother-daughter communication on COVID-
19, media literacy skills to counter COVID-19 misinformation, and COVID-19 mitigation (i.e., social distancing
behaviors) and vaccination (if available). Analyses will test the hypothesis that mothers will report increased
COVID-19 social distancing behaviors and explore whether rate of change in social distancing, vaccine
intentions, and secondary outcomes differ across type of source. Qualitative research using focus groups and
interviews will assess preferences for message sources, topics, and formats.
Publications
None. See parent grant details.