Health message relevance and disparagement among adolescents

In light of past work regarding message processing, communication interventions intended to encourage attitude and behavior change may face their greatest obstacles in attempting to engage those for whom messages are actually most relevant. The present study assessed whether adolescents presented with anti‐drug public service announcements (PSAs) would differ in their evaluations of the PSAs as a function of message relevance, measured in this case by past drug experience, over and above the effects of their attitude toward drug use. Results of the study supported the main hypothesis, even after controlling for a host of possible confounding variables.