MASS MEDIATED DRUG PREVENTION IN A MULTIETHNIC SAMPLE

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DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Abstract) The aim of this project is the development of theory-based strategies that foster construction of anti-drug communications tailored specifically to the particular psychology of the adolescent. Acknowledging the adolescent's growing need for individuation, control, and autonomy, this work makes use of insights derived from reactance theory and the elaboration likelihood model to structure the construction of messages that target children and adolescents at different developmental stages, and of different ethnic backgrounds. The goal of the research is to provide practitioners and scientists with information about the most efficacious means of persuading and informing adolescents about the dangers of drug initiation and use. The principles that guide the research will allow development of generalizations that may be usefully employed in a variety of drug-prevention contexts. Ultimately, our aim is to create a persuasive strategy that meshes with the peculiarities of our targeted sample. In this school-based project, we propose to present targets of different developmental stages (as inferred by grade in school: 4th, 7th, and 10th graders will be used) with anti-drug information via an involving, high tech, interactive, multi-media presentation. Marijuana and inhalants are the primary focus of the messages, whose development constitutes a major goal of the first year of this work. The target audience will be segmented by ethnic status. Messages are ascribed to, and presented by, either a peer (a young adolescent) or an adult source. Two message forms are employed: one emphasizes the controlling features of the source and message ("You must do this... you must behave in this way..."), the other the target's freedom of choice ("You decide..."). This 4-way design provides a sufficiently broad foundation to test a host of important mediating factors in adolescent acceptance of drug-prevention media.