PubMed · 10347459
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D Murdock. Talking cure.. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.13.26.24.s41
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BACKGROUND: Even though people are informed about skin cancer prevention, they do not always comply with prevention advice. From Language Expectancy Theory, it was predicted that messages with high language intensity would improve compliance with sun safety recommendations and that this effect would be enhanced with deductive argument style. METHODS: Parents (N = 841) from a pediatric clinic and elementary schools received sun safety messages (newsletters, brochures, tip cards) by mail that varied in language intensity and logical style. Effects on attitudes and behavior were tested in a pretest-posttest factorial design. RESULTS: As hypothesized, parents receiving messages with high- as opposed to low-intensity language complied more with sun safety advice. Messages with highly intense language were more persuasive when the arguments were formatted in a deductive style; low language intensity was more persuasive in inductively styled messages. CONCLUSIONS: By carefully adjusting messages features, health professionals can obtain further compliance beyond that produced by educating people about health risks and creating favorable attitudes and self-efficacy expectations. Highly intense language may be a good general strategy in prevention messages and works better when conclusions and recommendations are offered explicitly to recipients, especially when advice is aimed at reducing their personal risk.
The authors describe a randomized control study that tested the effectiveness of social skills training modules as an adjunct to an assertive community treatment (ACT) program. Implementation of the modules in this context presented multiple logistic and organizational problems. Only 21 of the 42 demonstration clients completed all or part of one of two scheduled modules. Thus the modules were not effective because of characteristics of the modules themselves, the nature of the overall program, and the study design. An ACT/social skills-training alliance would be more likely to succeed if individually tailored interventions were used rather than or supplementing the curriculum-based modules.