Peer Communication and Mass Media Usage on the Health Behaviour of Adolescent

Peer Communication and Mass Media Usage on the Health Behaviour of Adolescents at Tai Solarin University of Education

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Over the past few decades, media campaigns have been used in an attempt to affect various health behaviors in the mass population. Such campaigns are most notably aimed at tobacco use as health-disease prevention but have also addressed alcohol and illicit drug use, cancer screening and prevention, sex-related behaviors, child survival, and many other health-related issues. Typical campaigns have placed messages in media with large audiences, most frequently via television or radio, outdoor media, such as billboards and posters, and print media, such as magazines and newspapers. Exposure to such messages is generally passive, resulting from an incidental effect of routine use of media (Adams, 2009). Some campaigns incorporate new technologies (e.g., the internet, mobile phones, and personal digital assistants). Still, recipients have so far generally been required to actively choose information, for example, by clicking on a web link, and discussion of these methods is not included in this Review. Media campaigns can be short-duration or may extend over long periods (Dodge 2007). They may stand alone or be linked to other organized program components, such as clinical or institutional outreach and easy access to newly available or existing products or services, or may complement policy changes. Multiple methods of dissemination might be used if health campaign are part of broader social marketing programmes.1 The great promise of mass media campaigns lies in their ability to disseminate well-defined behaviourally focused messages to large audiences repeatedly, over time, in an incidental manner, and at a low cost per head. As we discuss in this Review, however, that promise has been inconsistently realized: campaign messages can fall short and even backfire; exposure of the audience to the message might not meet expectations, hindered by inadequate funding, the increasingly fractured and cluttered media environment, use of inappropriate or poorly researched format (eg, boring factual messages or age-inappropriate content), or a combination of this feature; homogeneous messages might not be persuasive to heterogeneous audiences; and campaign might address behavior that audiences lack the resources to change (Potter, 2009).

Mass media campaigns can work through direct and indirect pathways to change the behavior of whole populations. 2 Many campaigns aim to directly affect individual recipients by invoking cognitive or emotional responses. Such programs are intended to affect decision-making processes at the individual level.

Anticipated outcomes include removing or lowering obstacles to change, helping people adopt healthy or recognize unhealthy social norms, and associating valued emotions with achieving change. These changes strengthen intentions to alter and increase the likelihood of achieving new behaviors. For instance, an antismoking campaign might emphasize the risks of smoking and the benefits of quitting, provide a telephone number for a support line, remind smokers of positive social norms related to quitting, associate quitting with positive self-regard, or combine these features (Adakar, 2008).

Behavior change might also be achieved through indirect routes. First, mass media messages can set an agenda for and increase the frequency, depth, or both of interpersonal discussions about a particular health issue within an individual’s social network, which, in combination with individual exposure to messages, might reinforce (or undermine) specific changes in behavior.

Second, since mass media messages reach large audiences, changes in behavior that become norms within an individual’s social network might influence that person’s decisions without them having been directly exposed to or initially persuaded by the campaign. For example, after viewing televised antismoking campaign messages, several members of a social group might be prompted to form a support group to help them stop smoking. Another individual who has not seen the television campaign could decide to join the support group and his or her own behaviors (Owusu,2007). Finally, mass media can prompt public discussion of health issues and lead to changes in public policy, resulting in constraints on individuals’ behavior and thereby change, for example, a campaign discouraging smoking because of its second.’

H02: Peer communication will not significantly be the core predictor of the health behavior of Tasuedites

H1: Peer communication will significantly be the core predictor of the health behavior of Tasuedites.

H03: Mass media usage will not be the major determinant of the health behavior of adolescents in TASUED.

H1 Mass media usage will be the major determinant of the health behavior of adolescents in TASUED.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research study is significant in the sense that it contributes to the body of knowledge about peer communication and mass media usage among adolescents. It is also significant because it gives the researcher a sense of fulfillment and also serves as a reference point for students writing research on related topics.

1.7 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study would have best been carried out using all higher institutions in Ogun State as a case study, but due to time and financial constraints. However, the study has been briefly narrowed down to Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ijebu-Ode.

1.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

PEER COMMUNICATION: This refers to the act of passing information between people of the same age group, status, or social standing.

MASS MEDIA: This includes print, electronic, and other mediums.

ADOLESCENT: As defined by WHO (2005), it includes children from the age of fifteen (15).

HEALTH BEHAVIOUR: This refers to dynamism in the health habits of any individual.

PEER PRESSURE: This is the magnitude of pressure mounted by people of the same social standing, age, or status on themselves.