Journal article
Narratives or not? Examining the roles of message format and individuals' stages of change in the context of HPV vaccination promotion
Health education research, v 40(3), cyaf015
12 May 2025
PMID: 40354156
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Narrative persuasion has been widely used in health communication campaigns and persuasive message design. However, several meta-analyses showed that the relative effectiveness of narratives in promoting behavior change was not consistently observed in the existing literature. With the goal of exploring boundary conditions of narrative effects, this study investigates the interaction effects of narrative persuasion and stages of change on promoting behavior change in the context of encouraging parents to vaccinate their children against human papillomavirus (HPV). Findings from an online experiment (N = 593) showed that non-narrative messages were more effective in bolstering behavioral intention than narrative messages among people who were not ready to engage in behavior change (i.e. in the precontemplation stage). In addition, among people who were thinking about changing their behavior (i.e. in the contemplation stage) or motivated to take action (i.e. in the preparation stage), both narratives and non-narratives were effective in increasing behavioral intention. This study contributes important theoretical insights to the role of narratives in health communication. Public health professionals may consider tailoring message design strategies to audience characteristics to enhance message effectiveness.
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Details
- Title
- Narratives or not? Examining the roles of message format and individuals' stages of change in the context of HPV vaccination promotion
- Creators
- Mengfei Guan (Corresponding Author) - University of OklahomaShawn C Chiang - Texas A&M UniversityRegan M Murray - Johns Hopkins UniversityWen-Juo Lo - Department of Counseling, Leadership, and Research Methods, University of Arkansas, 100 Graduate Education Building, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USALarry T Hill - University of Arkansas for Medical SciencesAnn C Klassen - Drexel UniversityJennifer A Manganello - University at Albany, State University of New YorkAmy E Leader - Thomas Jefferson UniversityPhilip M Massey - UCLA Health
- Publication Details
- Health education research, v 40(3), cyaf015
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Number of pages
- 10
- Grant note
- R01CA229324 / National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health R01 CA229324 / NCI NIH HHS
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Community Health and Prevention
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001485335400001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105004988335
- Other Identifier
- 991022053729104721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Education & Educational Research
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health