Examining the Relationship between Message Variables, Affective Reactions, and Parents’ Instrumental Attitudes toward Their Child’s Physical Activity: The “Mr. Lonely” Public Service Announcement

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between message variables and affective reactions with parents’ attitudes after seeing a physical activity mass media public service announcement (PSA). It was hypothesized that there would be a positive relationship between message variables (i.e., personal relevance, novelty of information, and feelings toward sponsoring organization) and parents’ attitudes toward their child/children’s physical activity after viewing the PSA. Furthermore, we explored whether discrete affective reactions were related to attitudes, beyond the effect of message variables. A secondary data analysis was conducted with parental responses to an online campaign evaluation survey (n = 267). Hierarchical regression analyses showed an overall positive relationship between all three message variables and attitudes. Furthermore, two discrete affective reactions were positively related to attitudes. Parents who endorsed feeling motivated or guilty after viewing the advertisement had more positive attitudes toward their children’s physical activity levels. This study represents an ecologically valid assessment of how message variables and affective reactions are related to attitudes within the context of a physical activity mass media campaign. The results provide guidance for the effective design of mass media physical activity campaigns.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a Sansom Institute for Health Research grant and an Early Career Researcher International Travel grant from the University of South Australia awarded to Alyson J Crozier. Tanya R Berry is supported by the Canada Research Chairs program. Guy Faulkner holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Public Health Agency of Canada (CIHR-PHAC) Chair in Applied Public Health.