Reducing Adolescent Sexual Risk: A Theoretical - ETR Associates

Although both quality and quantity of argumentsare important, it is quality, more than quantity, thatmatters. Up to a point, additional strong argumentsmake a stronger case. However, when too manyarguments are presented, people may begin to countthe arguments and use a more peripheral route thanif they carefully analyze each argument and use amore central route (Petty and Wegener 1998). Inthis situation, additional arguments may diminishthe amount of attitudinal change.To increase the strength of messages about behaviorand arguments to support them, both argumentsand messages should be pilot tested with theintended audiences. Sometimes, slightly changingthem (without diminishing their correctness) orchanging how they are presented can improve theextent to which they are thoughtfully considered.Tailoring. Tailoring refers to adjusting messages tomatch the particular characteristics of the audience(e.g., their age, gender, race/ethnicity or culture),their needs or their concerns. Tailoring can increaseboth the ability and the motivation to thoughtfullyconsider a message (Petty, Barden et al. 2002). Itcan increase acceptance of a message. For example,behavioral messages for younger youth who areless likely to be sexually active might focus moreon abstaining or delaying sex than on condom/contraceptive use, while those for older youth whoare more likely to be sexually active might givegreater emphasis to the use of protection. Programsfor older males might focus more on proper use ofcondoms while programs for older females mightfocus more on skills to get their partners to usecondoms. Programs for Hispanic youth might givemore weight to family values and connection to theirfamilies, while those for other racial/ethnic groupsmight emphasize other values. As another example,if communication messages include pictures, thepictures may need to be adjusted to reflect the characteristicsof the targeted groups.Tailoring also can focus more precisely on thoseattitudes that need to be changed. For example,some people may have negative attitudes aboutcondoms because of the discomfort of buying them;others may have negative attitudes because of theawkwardness of asking a partner to use them; andothers may have negative attitudes because of thereduction in sensation. To meet the concerns of eachgroup, messages designed to change attitudes aboutcondoms may need to be adjusted to meet each ofthose concerns.As a final example, stages of change theory stipulatesthat people often pass through five stages ontheir way to adopting and maintaining a healthbehavior (i.e., precontemplation, contemplation,preparation, action and maintenance) (Prochaska,DiClemente et al. 1992). Messages may need tobe tailored for each of these stages. For example, ifpeople are at the precontemplation stage, then messagesshould be designed to get them to think aboutchanging their behavior, whereas if they are in themaintenance stage, then messages should strive toget them to maintain their new positive behavior.Important characteristics of the source. Theamount of attention that people give to a messageoften depends on various characteristics of thesource of the message. For example, people oftengive more attention to message arguments whenthey come from a credible, trusted and respectedsource. They also will give more attention when thesources are familiar and similar to themselves. Itis important to note that the expertise of a sourcehas an impact on attitude change only if the recipientknows before the message is received that thespeaker is an expert. If the recipients learn thisafterward, the expertise of the source has less impacton attitude change.In addition to the characteristics of the source, thecharacteristics of the relationship with the sourcealso are important in achieving attitudinal or valuechange. For example, when people are closely connectedto the source (e.g., to parents, educators orfriends), they may be more willing to consider themessage arguments.Stages of attitude change. Just as Prochaska’stranstheoretical stages of change describes stagesin adopting or changing health behaviors, similartheories exist for attitude change. Depending on theChapter 5 Addressing Attitudes, Values and Beliefs 59