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Press Releases
CD-ROM Created By HCRC Researcher To Curb Substance Abuse In Adolescents
Columbia, Mo. (Nov. 2, 2004) - A new member of the Health Communication Research Center has helped create a CD-ROM designed to teach adolescents about the dangers of substance abuse.
Dr. Paul Bolls, an assistant professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, and his fellow investigators created the CD through a grant funded by the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation. The goal of the study is to discover insights that can serve as the foundation for using interactive health messages to engage cognitive/emotional processes that will promote healthy decision making.
“This project is an evaluation of an interactive CD-ROM designed to teach adolescents about the dangers of substance abuse,” said Bolls. “The evaluation includes an experiment testing the effects of interactivity and production pacing of the content on attention, emotion, memory and attitudes.”
After evaluation, a final version of the CD-ROM will be distributed in middle schools to be used as part of a health curriculum.
According to Bolls, message producers intuitively believe interactivity has positive effects on message processing by the audience, but there has been little scientific research that examines the cognitive/emotional effects of interactive health messages. This project is being conducted in the context of adolescent substance abuse prevention but the insights provided by this study are likely to apply to multiple health issues.
This project fits with the HCRC mission of exploring disparities in health communication among adolescents and other underserved groups.
Data for this study is being collected at the C.E.C Lab at Washington State University and analyzed at the new PRIME (Psychological Research on Information and Media Effects) Lab at the Missouri School of Journalism. The CD-ROM was produced by PLADD substance abuse coalition and IMAGEWORKS Media Group (http://www.imageworksdigital.com/) in Tri-cities, Wash.
The other investigators on the grant are colleagues of Bolls’ from his time at Washington State University. Bruce Pinkleton is the primary investigator and Erica Austin is a co-investigator.
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