Search

Using an online questionnaire-based experimental design, self-identified U.S. Latino adults (N = 947) recalled and described one of three randomly assigned types of stress events: general stress (GS), discrimination-related stress (DRS), and rejection-related stress (RRS). Participants’ emotional reactions were expected to vary by condition. They then selected a video to watch from a media menu. It was expected that their selections would affect post-viewing emotional and quality of life outcomes. Results showed that there were differences among the emotional reactions and media-based coping selection depending on the type of event that participants described.Participants recalling a DRS event reported more anger compared to the GS and RRS groups. Those recalling an RRS event reported more shame than the GS group but not the DRS group. Participants who recalled a DRS event were more likely to select eudaimonic and ingroup media compared to all other groups. Those who recalled an RRS event were more likely than those in the GS group to select hedonic media, but not those in the DRS group. Those who recalled an RRS event were more likely to select outgroup media compared to those in the DRS group but not those in the GS group. Thus, the RRS condition acted as a middle step between recalling a DRS and a GS event.These results demonstrate that the different types of stressors that U.S. Latinos face elicit specific emotions and lead to specific media-based coping strategies. Moreover, participants’ media-based coping selection affected their subsequent emotion and quality of life outcomes like increasing pride and ethnic group commitment.

This study offers a test of the cognitive mediation model (CMM) within a low-income, Spanish-speaking population in the state of Indiana. A survey study was conducted to test whether participants (N = 150) who consumed ethnic newspapers, namely La Raza, were more likely to have greater cancer prevention knowledge and more likely to comply with cancer prevention behaviors. The interaction between La Raza readership and health motivation was not significantly related to either screening or knowledge; however, individuals with high health motivation were more likely to report screening. Notably, two of the relationships posited by the CMM were absent, surveillance motivation and elaboration were not related to knowledge. Further, our test of the model did not yield any significant results in its original form or the modified version used to test an ethnic subsample in a health news learning context. However, once elaboration was removed from the model, there was an indirect relationship between surveillance motivation and cancer prevention knowledge through attention. Future research should focus on finding ways in which models such as the CMM can be modified to explain news learning in ethnic and linguistic subpopulations.