Self-Affirmation and Response to Health Risk Information
| Status: | Completed |
|---|---|
| Conditions: | Psychiatric |
| Therapuetic Areas: | Psychiatry / Psychology |
| Healthy: | No |
| Age Range: | 18 - Any |
| Updated: | 4/17/2018 |
| Start Date: | August 11, 2012 |
| End Date: | May 13, 2013 |
Self-Affirmation, Affect, and Implementation Intentions for Alcohol Cessation
Background:
- Self-affirmation is the process of reflecting on values that a person considers important.
This process may encourage people to be more open to information about health risks. It may
also encourage them to change their behaviors or lifestyle to decrease these health risks.
Researchers want to look at the effect of self-affirmation on people s responses to new
health risk information. Because recent studies have linked alcohol consumption to increased
risk of breast cancer, the study will focus on alcohol s link to breast cancer.
Objectives:
- To study how self-affirmation can change opinions following a message about a health risk.
Eligibility:
- Women at least 18 years of age who drink at least two alcoholic beverages per week and/or
at least three alcoholic beverages per sitting.
Design:
- Participants will be recruited through an online panel. The study will be conducted
entirely online.
- Participants will respond to two short studies. The first will ask about life events and
how they make people feel. The second will look at how people respond to information
about alcohol and breast cancer.
- For the first study, participants will write a paragraph or two about an important event
in their lives. They will answer questions about how that event made them feel. They
will also write a paragraph about an important personal value.
- For the second study, participants will read information about alcohol and breast cancer
risk. They will then answer questions about this information. They will also answer
questions about their beliefs about alcohol and breast cancer.
- Participants will receive financial compensation for being in this study.
- Self-affirmation is the process of reflecting on values that a person considers important.
This process may encourage people to be more open to information about health risks. It may
also encourage them to change their behaviors or lifestyle to decrease these health risks.
Researchers want to look at the effect of self-affirmation on people s responses to new
health risk information. Because recent studies have linked alcohol consumption to increased
risk of breast cancer, the study will focus on alcohol s link to breast cancer.
Objectives:
- To study how self-affirmation can change opinions following a message about a health risk.
Eligibility:
- Women at least 18 years of age who drink at least two alcoholic beverages per week and/or
at least three alcoholic beverages per sitting.
Design:
- Participants will be recruited through an online panel. The study will be conducted
entirely online.
- Participants will respond to two short studies. The first will ask about life events and
how they make people feel. The second will look at how people respond to information
about alcohol and breast cancer.
- For the first study, participants will write a paragraph or two about an important event
in their lives. They will answer questions about how that event made them feel. They
will also write a paragraph about an important personal value.
- For the second study, participants will read information about alcohol and breast cancer
risk. They will then answer questions about this information. They will also answer
questions about their beliefs about alcohol and breast cancer.
- Participants will receive financial compensation for being in this study.
This study aims to examine whether emotional state moderates the effect of self-affirmation
on intentions to engage in proactive behavior following a message about a health threat.
Specifically, we propose to examine whether self-affirmation a process by which individuals
reflect on cherished personal values differentially affects the persuasiveness of a message
about the link between alcohol and breast cancer depending on whether individuals are in a
particular emotional state. Previous evidence suggests that self affirmation may reduce
defensiveness to threatening health information, increasing openness to the message and
resulting in increased disease risk perceptions, disease-related worry, and intentions to
engage in preventive behavior. However, self-affirmation may be differentially effective
depending on the prior emotional state of the individual. Human subjects (women who report
having consumed one or more alcoholic beverages in the past month) will be randomly assigned
to write about an emotional event (something that made them happy, sad, angry, or hopeful) or
to a neutral emotion condition (writing about a room in their house). Then, they will be
randomly assigned to self-affirm (write about why a particular value is important to them) or
to be in a control condition (write about why a particular value might be important to
someone else). Following the autobiographical emotion task and self-affirmation, subjects
will read about the link between alcohol and breast cancer. Finally, they will be asked a
series of questions about their intentions to reduce drinking, their perceived risk of breast
cancer, and their worry about breast cancer. Drawing on previous research, we hypothesize
that self-affirmation will be most effective for those asked to recall a happy or angry
experience, and least effective for those asked to recall a sad or hopeful experience
on intentions to engage in proactive behavior following a message about a health threat.
Specifically, we propose to examine whether self-affirmation a process by which individuals
reflect on cherished personal values differentially affects the persuasiveness of a message
about the link between alcohol and breast cancer depending on whether individuals are in a
particular emotional state. Previous evidence suggests that self affirmation may reduce
defensiveness to threatening health information, increasing openness to the message and
resulting in increased disease risk perceptions, disease-related worry, and intentions to
engage in preventive behavior. However, self-affirmation may be differentially effective
depending on the prior emotional state of the individual. Human subjects (women who report
having consumed one or more alcoholic beverages in the past month) will be randomly assigned
to write about an emotional event (something that made them happy, sad, angry, or hopeful) or
to a neutral emotion condition (writing about a room in their house). Then, they will be
randomly assigned to self-affirm (write about why a particular value is important to them) or
to be in a control condition (write about why a particular value might be important to
someone else). Following the autobiographical emotion task and self-affirmation, subjects
will read about the link between alcohol and breast cancer. Finally, they will be asked a
series of questions about their intentions to reduce drinking, their perceived risk of breast
cancer, and their worry about breast cancer. Drawing on previous research, we hypothesize
that self-affirmation will be most effective for those asked to recall a happy or angry
experience, and least effective for those asked to recall a sad or hopeful experience
- INCLUSION CRITERIA:
- Knowledge Networks panel respondents will be included if they are women who report
having consumed the equivalent of 2-3 or more alcoholic beverage per week and/ or 3 or
more alcoholic beverages in one sitting.
- Women will be included if they report drinking 3 or more drinks on any occasion, or
more than 2-3 times per week.
EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
- Women will be excluded if they report never drinking alcohol or drinking monthly or
2-4 times per month, 1-2 drinks or less each time.
- All men, and women who report a lower threshold of alcohol consumption, will be
excluded
We found this trial at
1
site
9609 Medical Center Drive
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
1-800-422-6237
National Cancer Institute , 9000 Rockville Pike The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of...
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