While the maternal and infant health benefits of breastfeeding are greatly supported by research, breastfeeding rates in the United States remain sub-optimal. Increasing the prevalence of infant breastfeeding is an important public health goal as the maintenance of maternal and infant health is one of society's best investments. Applying the Protection Motivation Theory, this study seeks to identify conditions that maximize the desired impact of health information on intentions to partake in breastfeeding. Research has shown that the way a message is framed can differentially affect an individual's judgments, decisions, and behaviors. This study investigates whether gain- and loss-framed messages vary in their impact on behavioral intentions to breastfeed among female college students. Utilizing a survey with a field-experimental manipulation, this study examines the effects of message framing on intentions to breastfeed, considering threat appraisal variables, coping appraisal variables, as well as negative affect and information acceptance as moderating variables. The survey contains measures of vulnerability, severity, maladaptive rewards, self-efficacy, response efficacy and cost, negative affect, and information acceptance. Multiple regression analyses were employed to test the relationships identified by ten hypotheses. The findings of this study show loss-framed messages are significantly positively related to threat appraisals, as suggested in the literature. However, this study was unable to produce support for the use of gain-framed messages in predicting breastfeeding intentions. This study proposed the addition of negative affect and information acceptance to the traditional PMT model. Threat appraisals were found to be significantly positively related to negative affect, and coping appraisals were found to be significantly positively related to information acceptance. Both threat and coping appraisals were found to significantly positively predict breastfeeding intentions. When controlling for race and breastfeeding experience, some findings varied, indicating a need for breastfeeding interventions tailored to women's race and level of experience. These findings should be taken into consideration by health professionals attempting to develop materials that are meant to increase breastfeeding intentions. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2013. / June 20, 2013. / behavioral intentions, breastfeeding, information acceptance, message framing,
negative affect, protection motivation theory / Includes bibliographical references. / Gary Heald, Professor Directing Dissertation; Isaac Eberstein, University Representative; John Mayo, Committee Member; Stephen McDowell, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183712 |
| Contributors | Esquibel, Monica (authoraut), Heald, Gary (professor directing dissertation), Eberstein, Isaac (university representative), Mayo, John (committee member), McDowell, Stephen (committee member), School of Communication (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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