Development of the UNC Perceived Message Effectiveness Scale for Youth

Abstract

PurposeTobacco prevention media campaigns are an important tool to address youth tobacco use. We developed a theory-based perceived message effectiveness (PME) Scale to use when vetting messages for campaigns.MethodsParticipants were a national sample of N=623 US adolescents (ages 13–17 years) recruited from a national probability-based panel. In an online experiment, we randomised adolescents to view tobacco prevention ads. All participants viewed an ad on smoking or vaping from the US Food and Drug Administration’s The Real Cost campaign and a control video, in a random order. After ad exposure, we assessed PME using nine candidate items and constructs for convergent and criterion validity analyses. We used confirmatory factor analysis and examined information curves to select the scale items.ResultsA brief PME scale with three items (α=0.95) worked equally well for demographically diverse adolescents with different patterns of tobacco use. The Real Cost ads generated higher PME scores than the control videos for both vaping and smoking (convergent validity; p<0.05). Higher PME scores were associated with greater attention, fear, cognitive elaboration and anticipated social interactions (convergent validity; r=0.31–0.66), as well as more negative attitudes toward and lower susceptibility to vaping and smoking (criterion validity; r=−0.14 to −0.37). A single-item PME measure performed similarly to the three-item version.ConclusionsThe University of North Carolina PME Scale for Youth is a reliable and valid measure of the potential effectiveness of vaping and smoking prevention ads. Employing PME scales during message development and selection may help youth tobacco prevention campaigns deploy more effective ads.

Identifying Promising Themes for Adolescent Vaping Warnings: A National Experiment

“…Participants in the current experiment were part of a larger adolescent vaping prevention study. 41 Briefly, prior to the current experiment, the larger study had adolescent participants view two tobacco prevention video ads and answer items about the ads. Participants received an incentive equivalent to $12 for completing the study.…”

Terms tobacco users employ to describe e-cigarette aerosol

“…The five-point response scale ranged from not at all (coded as 1) to a great deal (5). This single-item PME measure performs similarly to a three-item scale 28 29…”

“…For the experiment, participants rated the perceived message effectiveness (PME) of a warning statement. We selected PME as the outcome for the experiment because it is sensitive to small differences between messages and is predictive of long-term behaviour change 26–29. The PME item read, ‘ How much does this message discourage you from wanting to vape?…”

Impact of Vaping Prevention Advertisements on US Adolescents

“…We assessed susceptibility with a 3-item susceptibility to vaping scale, similar to other studies . This scale assesses the extent to which adolescents are open to vaping, with a 4-point response scale ranging from definitely not (coded as 1) to definitely yes (coded as 4) (eTable 2 and eTable 3 in Supplement 2).…”

“…26,27 We assessed susceptibility with a 3-item susceptibility to vaping scale, similar to other studies. [28][29][30][31] This scale assesses the extent to which adolescents are open to vaping, with a 4-point response scale ranging from definitely not (coded as 1) to definitely yes (coded as 4) (eTable 2 and eTable 3 in Supplement 2). We calculated a susceptibility score by calculating the mean of the 3 items, with higher scores representing higher susceptibility (Cronbach α = .93).…”