Misleading messages, ambivalent attitudes: Teen's health beliefs on sports drinks, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.
The goal of this NIH/NIDCR study is to identify factors that influence the behavior of adolescents to drink sports and energy drinks and to then change those beliefs to reduce consumption and improve adolescent health. This project includes a content analysis on sports and energy drink advertisements, a national survey of 503 youth ages 14-18 years old, a series of youth focus groups, and a Health & Media Summer Scholars program (HMSS). HMSS is a program designed for high school youth to train them on basic research skills and work with them to develop messages for youth about avoiding sports and energy drinks.
For more information, contact bleakley@udel.edu
Establishing the science behind Alzheimer's recruitment registries: opportunities for increasing diversity and accelerating enrollment into trials, National Institute on Aging
To improve clinical research about Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), it is necessary to increase the enrollment of adults in AD screenings in order to learn more about the disease and perceptions around it. Since most of the participants are female and non-minorities, research will be done to find ways to reach a more diverse group of participants. The goal of this NIH/NIA study is to understand how men and minorities specifically respond to certain information so recruitment registries can effectively communicate to this audience, with an overall goal is to increase diversity and participation in Alzheimer’s research.
For more information, contact bleakley@udel.edu
COVID-19 Spillover? How the COVID-19 information environment affects perceptions of scientific research and Alzheimer’s disease prevention efforts, National Institute on Aging.
This NIH/NIA study examines how the COVID information environment and perceptions of COVID-19 may affect: (1) COVID prevention behaviors, (2) attitudes towards medical research and (3) willingness to participate in scientific research in general and related to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). The project includes a 12-month content analysis of new sources; a 2-wave only survey; and monthly online surveys among white, Black, and Hispanic respondents.
For more information, contact bleakley@udel.edu
The influence of supportive messages on health recovery for LGBQ victims of hate speech.
Studies have shown that discrimination and hate speech against minority members of the LGBQ community can cause negative health effects. Social support from friends and family members has been proven to lessen these effects, but researchers wanted to know why. This project seeks to explain the importance of social connectivity in healthy LBGQ individuals, via biological reaction tests, measuring the frequency of health-related behaviors, and determining whether social support encourages individuals to seek out further support on their own.
For more information, contact jpcrow@udel.edu
Assistant Professor John Crowley, recipient of a Faculty Diversity Research Fellowship, states that the "goals of the fellowship are to deepen [his] knowledge of statistical analyses so that [he] can thoroughly analyze datasets from two research projects." Crowley seeks to help people cope with both explicit and implicit discrimination. With financial support, he’ll be better able to publish studies in top-ranking journals that will reach a wider range of scholars and audiences. Crowley’s hope is that these publications “will inspire other communication scholars to conduct similar research focused on understanding ways to help historically underrepresented populations.”
For more information, contact jpcrow@udel.edu
This NIH grant investigates the associations between covert (microaggressions) and overt discrimination and its links to immune dysregulation for Black adults. Specifically, a model that consider the pathways (both direct and direct) along which experiences with discrimination impact health and then the relational factors (e.g., social support) that may affect these associations is proposed.
For more information, contact jpcrow@udel.edu
Oxytocin and Sexual Communication/Forgiveness
This project examines links between oxytocin and relational outcomes, specifically with respect to sexual communication and forgiveness.
For more information, contact jpcrow@udel.edu
Does Age Matter to Adolescents in the Portrayal of Alcohol and Sex on TV?
Unhealthy risk behaviors like premature sexual activity and alcohol use occur as early as adolescence and often in combination with one another. Research has shown that exposure to media content featuring portrayals of risk behaviors is a key influence on young adults’ performance of the same behaviors. This study uses an online experiment to test whether the age of the character portraying the behavior, and how viewers identify with them, is associated with attitudes towards and intention to engage in risk behaviors. Participants will view TV clips from two popular streaming shows, both featuring portrayals of alcohol use and sexual activity performed by characters of different ages, and attitudes and intention about using alcohol and combining sex and alcohol will be assessed post-exposure.
For more information, contact bleakley@udel.edu
Binge watching and health
Binge watching television is both extremely common and commonly maligned. How bad is it, really? A series of studies has tested for moderating conditions and individual differences that predict when binge watching will be associated with poorer health and well-being outcomes, but also when it will be associated with positive outcomes like recovery from stress.
For more information, contact mellitho@udel.edu
