College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, University of Houston-Victoria, Victoria, Texas, USA.
Hussman School of Journalism and Media, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
J Health Commun. 2024 Jul 2;29(7):420-431. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2024.2355299. Epub 2024 May 20.
While research on youth vaping prevention has begun to grow, little work has examined language choice in vaping prevention messages. This study examined adolescents' responses to vaping prevention statements that varied on three features: behavioral framing, linguistic certainty, and target specification. We conducted a 2 (behavioral framing) by 2 (linguistic certainty) by 2 (target specification) by 3 (risk type) plus control condition between-subjects experiment using a national probability sample. Adolescents (N = 1,603) were randomly assigned to one of 25 conditions in which they viewed a vaping prevention statement (or a control statement about vape litter) followed by measures of perceived message effectiveness (PME), perceived severity and susceptibility of vaping risks, message trustworthiness, message relevance, and intentions to seek more information about vaping risks. Results showed main effects of behavioral framing, such that a declarative frame ("Vaping can … ") led to higher PME, higher perceived severity, and greater information seeking intentions than a contingent frame ("If you vape, it can…"), while an interaction revealed that most declarative frame effects were driven by adolescents who were susceptible to vaping. There were also main effects of linguistic certainty, such that the word "can" ("Vaping can … ") led to higher PME, higher perceived susceptibility and severity, and greater information seeking intentions than the word "could" ("Vaping could … "). No main effect of target specification ("you" vs. "teens") was observed. Overall, findings suggest that vaping prevention messages that communicate greater certainty have greater behavior change potential.
虽然有关青少年电子烟预防的研究已经开始增加，但很少有研究关注电子烟预防信息中的语言选择。本研究考察了青少年对电子烟预防语句的反应，这些语句在三个方面有所不同：行为框架、语言确定性和目标具体性。我们采用了一项基于全国概率样本的 2（行为框架）×2（语言确定性）×2（目标具体性）×3（风险类型）加对照条件的被试间实验。共有 1603 名青少年被随机分配到 25 种条件中的一种，他们在其中观看了电子烟预防语句（或关于电子烟垃圾的对照语句），然后测量了感知信息有效性（PME）、感知电子烟风险的严重程度和易感性、信息可信度、信息相关性以及寻求更多电子烟风险信息的意图。结果表明，行为框架存在显著主效应，即陈述式框架（“电子烟会……”）比条件式框架（“如果你吸电子烟，它会……”）导致更高的 PME、更高的感知严重程度和更大的信息寻求意图，而交互作用表明，大多数陈述式框架效应是由易受电子烟影响的青少年驱动的。语言确定性也存在显著主效应，即“can”（“电子烟会……”）比“could”（“电子烟可能……”）导致更高的 PME、更高的感知易感性和严重程度，以及更大的信息寻求意图。目标具体性（“你”与“青少年”）没有观察到显著主效应。总体而言，研究结果表明，传达更高确定性的电子烟预防信息具有更大的行为改变潜力。
