A Meta-analysis of the Effectiveness of Mass-Communication for Changing Substance-use Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior

Abstract

This chapter presents a first step in an attempt to use metaanalysis techniques to assess the effects of media interventions on the substanceuse behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge of youth. Meta-analysis revolves around effect sizes computed to represent the key findings of the studies under investigation. Research on the effects of media messages specifically directed at reducing substance-use has yielded similarly mixed results with regard to behavioral outcomes, but has produced more positive results for awareness, knowledge, and attitude change. Messages aimed at enhancing social desirability, health appeals, improving decision-making skills, and promoting resistance skills also are believed to have the potential to reduce youth substance-use. Youth substance-use behaviors, and the attitudes and knowledge that presumably precede that use, often are the primary focus of media campaigns. Changes in substance-use behaviors are the distal outcomes of the intervention and are presumed to follow from the psychological effects of the messages.

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