Communicating to young Chinese about human papillomavirus vaccination: examining the impact of message framing and temporal distance

ABSTRACT

This research investigated the influence of message framing (gain or loss) and temporal distance (present or future) on the intention of Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. A total of 156 Chinese undergraduates participated in a controlled experiment in Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China. Results showed that message framing and temporal distance interacted to impact the intention of HPV vaccination. Particularly, among participants who had no prior knowledge of HPV vaccine, the gain-present and loss-future framed messages resulted in more positive attitudes toward the message, higher degree of perceived severity of HPV infection, and more likelihood to get HPV vaccination than the gain-future and loss-present framed messages. Implications of the findings were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• HPV vaccine
• message framing
• temporal distance
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Nainan Wen is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing University, China. Her research interests include health communication, science communication, media effects, and youth studies.

Fuyuan Shen is an associate professor of communications at Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on media effects, persuasion, and health communication.