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The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantially lower uptake of childhood vaccinations in the U.S. As vaccination rates struggle to rebound, childhood vaccine hesitancy continues to grow. Addressing vaccine disinformation and increasing catch-up vaccination is an urgent public health priority. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of “Jenny’s First Sleepover,” a darkly humorous satirical book about childhood vaccinations, to influence attitudes of vaccine hesitant parents. This study implemented a randomized pretest – posttest experimental design using a web-based survey with one intervention and one control. “Jenny’s First Sleepover” improved attitudes toward vaccination among vaccine hesitant parents. Negative emotions were an important mediator of attitudes toward vaccinations. Findings identify mechanisms that increase effectiveness of satirical approaches, including the presentation of novel information about serious vaccine-preventable diseases with a dark narrative twist. Health communicators may consider a darkly humorous satirical approach to improve attitudes toward childhood vaccination among vaccine hesitant parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though nonprofit management literature frequently discusses the importance of communication and cultivating relationships with donors, members, and volunteers, research on how individuals process organizational messages is sparse. This study proposes a model theoretically based on communicative action problem solving that details a sequential chain of communicative actions that predict behavioral intentions to support organizations. Using an online survey of members of a state museum (n = 363), this study found support for how individuals process organizational messages. Specifically, individuals that perceive a strong relationship with an organization are more likely to seek out information from or about that organization. After seeking out information, individuals filter messaging to keep the most helpful content while ignoring other content before ultimately sharing those messages with their personal network. Through sequential mediation analysis, the data supports the hypothesized order of active communication processes and extends the conceptual linkages discussed by nonprofit management literature between organization-public relationships and behavioral outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey of 241 full professors in journalism and mass communication were asked their views on doctoral education. Results indicated that the expected number of publications students should generate from their dissertations was positively correlated with the number of publications professors produced from their own dissertations, supporting the notion that mentoring involves passing on the behaviors that professors learned as graduate students themselves. The data also revealed that respondents tended to think of students as "colleagues in training" rather than simply as graduate assistants to help with the professors' own work. Results also showed that those with a PhD believed a terminal degree was more important for journalism faculty than significant work experience in journalism, which further supports the idea of mentees following in their mentors' footsteps.

Although advocacy and activism have been discussed in communication literature, are important in society, and often aid in organizational success, conceptual definitions and valid measurement of the concepts are lacking. By searching the literature, seeking two rounds of expert feedback, and employing two surveys (N = 1,300) for scale development, this study advances a new measurement model of behavior that may be useful for future research and practice. The findings support six distinct factors of behavioral advocacy and activism, three representing advocacy and three representing activism. The behaviors are communicative, collective, and combative in nature. Implications are discussed, along with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IN MARCH 2005, in the case of Roper, Superintendent, Potosi Correctional Center v Simmons, the United States Supreme Court declared that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution forbid [...]

Despite increasing warnings about inaccurate information online, little is known about how social media contribute to the widespread diffusion of unverified health information. This study addresses this issue by examining the vaccine-autism controversy. By looking into a large dataset of Twitter, Reddit posts, and online news over 20 months in the US, Canada, and the UK, our time-series analysis shows that Twitter drives news agendas, and Reddit follows news agendas regarding the vaccine-autism debate. Additionally, the results show that both Twitter and Reddit are more likely to discuss the vaccine-autism link compared to online news content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examined factors influencing older women’s post-fall decision making. We surveyed 130 independent older women from continuing care retirement communities and non-institutional homes. We categorized women’s post-fall decisions as medical, corrective, and social decisions, and examined the associations between post-fall decision categories, decisional conflict, number of post-fall changes, self-rated health, frequency of falls, severity of falls, health literacy, awareness and openness to long-term care institutional options, and demographics. Older women experienced greater decisional conflict when making medical decisions versus social (p = .012) and corrective (p = .047) decisions. Significant predictors of post-fall decisional conflict were awareness of institutional care options (p = .001) and health literacy (p = .001). Future educational interventions should address knowledge deficits and provide resources to enhance collaborative efforts to lower women’s post-fall decisional conflict and increase satisfaction in the decisions they make after a fall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a randomized between-subjects design, participants (N = 80) were assigned to one of four conditions, 2 (pregnant, not pregnant) × 2 (extreme prime, moderate prime). It was hypothesized that primes involving moderate mental illness would be positively associated with increased perceived risk of developing postpartum depression. Hayes and Preacher's bootstrapping procedure was used to test the direct, indirect, and conditional indirect effects related to the hypothesized model. In addition, further analyses evaluated whether implicitly activated goals (to be healthy or to be a good mother) were positively associated with increased perceptions of risk and engagement of downstream avoidance behavioral intentions. Findings show that for pregnant participants, the effect of the prime condition on perceived personal risk of developing postpartum depression was mediated by perceptions about the target character's sanity. However, activated "healthy" and "good mother" goals are not influencing behavioral intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]