Influence of race on cognitive and affective reactions to organ donation messages

College Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Regarding Organ Donation: An Integrated Review of the Literature1

“…First, the current review provides a service to the reader in amassing the literature in this area for integration. Consider that papers and reports on the topic of organ and tissue donation (OTD) frequently appear in an array of journals ranging from higher education (e.g., Rubens, Oleckno, & Cisla, 1998) to social science (e.g., Birkimer et al, 1994) to journals whose focus is transplantation (e.g., Kopfman, Smith, Morrison, Massi, & Yoo, 2002). As you will read in the Method section, intensive search in several databases was needed to capture many of the articles considered in this review.…”

“…Several authors have examined personal factors in relation to attitudes and intentions to become an organ donor. There are two studies (Kopfman et al, 2002; Rubens, 1996) that compared attitudes and intentions to donate by student race and student ethnicity. Kopfman et al's results echoed the findings in the larger literature (e.g., Davidson & Devney, 1991; Minniefield, Yang, & Muti, 2001; Siminoff, Lawrence, & Arnold, 2003) indicating African Americans' more critical attitudes toward organ donation.…”

“…While the previous two studies provide evidence that intended donors are less anxious in general than are those with lower intention to donate, a line of research by Kopfman and colleagues (Kopfman et al, 1998, 2002; Smith et al, 2004) more directly examined students' anxiousness about organ donation. Using a 7‐point Likert scale, students reported their anxiety about OTD at the middle of the scale ( M =3.73 and 3.77 for Kopfman et al, 2002, and Smith et al, 2004, respectively). Anxiety did not differ by students' race (Kopfman et al, 2002).…”

“…Using a 7‐point Likert scale, students reported their anxiety about OTD at the middle of the scale ( M =3.73 and 3.77 for Kopfman et al, 2002, and Smith et al, 2004, respectively). Anxiety did not differ by students' race (Kopfman et al, 2002). Using three measures of anxiety (perceived anxiety, worry about organ donation shortage, feelings of uneasiness), Smith et al found that anxiety was related to the credibility of the OTD message and willingness to communicate about OTD.…”

A 15-Year Review of ABC, CBS, and NBC News Coverage of Organ Donation: Implications for Organ Donation Campaigns

“…In search of solutions, research on organ donation has explored individual differences between potential donors and nondonors, including age (Siminoff, Gordon, Hewlett, & Arnold, 2001), altruism (Morgan & Miller, 2002a), ethnicity (Morgan, 2004;Morgan, Miller, & Arasaratnam, 2003), knowledge (Feeley & Servoss, 2005;Weber et al, 2006), normative 138 QUICK, KIM, AND MEYER influences (Morgan & Miller, 2002b), and sex (Thompson, Robinson, & Kenny, 2003) on outcome variables such as attitudes, willingness to communicate about organ donation, and intentions of becoming a potential donor. In addition, research has studied health campaigns designed to raise awareness about organ donation (Morgan, Miller, Arasaratnam, 2002;Weber et al, 2006), the persuasiveness of certain message features (Feeley, Marshall, & Reinhart, 2006;Kopfman, Smith, Morrison, Massi, & Yoo, 2002), and media portrayals of organ donation (Feeley & Vincent, 2007;Morgan, Harrison, Chewning, DiCorcia, & Davis, 2007;Quick et al, 2007). Despite these efforts, the organ shortage in the United States has reached a critical stage (UNOS, 2007).…”