Evaluating the Educational Potential of Health PSAs with Preschoolers

Abstract

Children learn from a variety of televised programs, including the short public service announcements (PSAs) that air between children's programs. PSAs are designed to repetitively expose children to important content ranging from the benefits of reading to health-related messages. The purpose of this study was to evaluate 5 PSAs containing health messages for preschoolers (i.e., nutrition, physical activity, and hand washing). Using an experimental framework, we examined children's ability to learn the messages and transfer that knowledge and apply it in novel situations. Child PSA viewers were able to recall more of the educational content, apply this knowledge to specific choices contained in each message, and transfer this knowledge to novel situations compared with their nonviewing counterparts. Implications are discussed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The project described was supported by grant from Iowa Public Television. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of Iowa Public Television.

The authors would like to thank the talented and dedicated efforts of staff who helped to make this project successful, as well as the students and teachers at the participating schools. Without their time, energy, and enthusiasm, this project would not have been possible.

Notes

¹Of all the cereal ads targeting children, just 1% mentioned having no added sugar, and only 3% mention they are made with whole wheat or whole grain (Gantz et al., 2007).

²See http://www.iptv.org/kids/healthyminutes/ to view the health messages.

³See http://www.hww.ca/media.asp?mcid=3 to view the animal messages.

⁴The host character found in the health PSAs, Dan Wardel, was a known personality in one of the research locations. He attended many community events to advocate for and encourage healthy behavior choices in his preschool audiences. Therefore, we were able to examine the potential effects associated with having seen Dan Wardel or heard his messages prior to participating in this study.