Reactance to a Tailored Multimedia Intervention Encouraging Teachers to Promote Cover-the-Cough

Abstract

Teachers were presented tailored multimedia messages encouraging them to offer cover-the-cough instruction to their students. Messages were tailored by grade level (elementary, higher grade) and stage of change (preaction, action). Among teachers in the action stages, message tailoring did not make a difference. Among teachers in the preaction stages, tailored messages were rated lower than were nontailored messages. The lower ratings of the tailored messages, seemingly a reactance response, did not carry over to postintervention self-efficacy. The intervention was effective in improving self-efficacy in elementary school teachers, particularly among those in the preaction stages.

Notes

Note. Post-pre diff is the change in self-reported confidence to teach cover-the-cough techniques to students, whereas postintervention self-efficacy is a composite score derived by averaging four items.