Spreading Teen-Recorded Inspirational Videos to Engage Schoolmates

Despite several decades of effort that have produced meaningful insights into factors
affecting the entry of minority students into careers in health research, there is still a
great need to further promote entry of minority students into health research. Research we
have done building on broader research on how minority youth select careers has shown that
when minority students are interested in career in health research, a dedicated program with
realistic career experiences and multi-tiered mentors can increase knowledge, attitudes and
behaviors needed for a career in health research. However, we found that such programs are
much less effective if students do not enter them with a pre-existing interest in careers in
health research. Unfortunately, very little is known about how to increase the interest in
careers in health research. Research is badly needed on interventions that can "prime the
pump" for pipeline programs by increasing the number of minority students with interest in
careers in health research.

Studies from adolescent health education suggest that messages that have the potential to
change people's attitudes and behaviors often originate from a trusted peer. A peer messenger
is often more easily able to relate to an individual and understand the unique pressures that
an individual may face in changing their behavior. This is especially true in teens, who are
more likely to value the opinion of and seek to emulate their peers compared to adults. While
peer pressure is often cast as a negative phenomenon among teens, the use of positive modes
of peer pressure to change behavior among teens is gaining in popularity. For example,
positive peer pressure has been used in many youth-to-youth messaging campaigns related to
difficult to change behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse or safe sex.

Peer online social networks may be a potential way to increase interest in careers in health
research among underrepresented minority students. The explosion of social media and
smartphones has facilitated the creation of social networks online, a well-documented way for
teenagers to interact with each other and to obtain information. According to the Pew
Internet Project, nearly three quarters of online teens and an equal number of young adults
use social network sites. Moreover, roughly 85% of teens who use social networks are active
participants in the site, and engage in activities such as posting comments on a friend's
profile page, or underneath a friend's picture. Nearly 40% of teens report sharing content
online that they created personally. The use of self-created videos has exploded with the
creation of popular media-sharing websites, such as YouTube and roughly one third of teens
report sharing videos.

Interestingly, there is reason to believe that online social networking interventions that
aim to boost career interests would be more effective for underrepresented racial and ethnic
groups as well as teens from low income families than for whites. First, data suggests that
online social network use is higher among teens from low-income families (those earning less
than $30,000 annually) than in teens from wealthier households (80% vs. 70%). Moreover,
minority families are more likely to access the internet remotely through mobile devices such
as cell phones than whites. Together, this data highlights the enormous potential for online
social media interventions to influence career interest and engagement in minority youth.

One promising solution to increase interest in clinical research careers among high achieving
youth at a time when career decision making is easily influenced is through the spreading
video messages crafted by youth for youth through social media. Therefore, the specific aims
of this proposal are the following:

Specific Aim 1: To engage high achieving minority youth enrolled in an intensive pipeline
clinical research program in performing focus groups and surveys of their peers to
characterize what types of messages would be most likely to motivate their peers to consider
a career in clinical research

Specific Aim 2: To engage high-achieving minority youth participating in a pipeline clinical
research program in a social media campaign in which they will create a short video to
promote interest in clinical research careers and spread it to their schoolmates

Specific Aim 3: To evaluate the reach of social media campaign led by students in a pipeline
clinical research program to spread a video they create to improve interest in clinical
research careers

Specific Aim 4: To evaluate the effects of a student-led social media campaign on interest in
a clinical research career among the schoolmates of students in a pipeline clinical research
program

Inclusion Criteria:

- To be eligible to participate in this study, the subjects must be between the ages of
15-17 years old. The focus group participants will be recruited from the Collegiate
Scholars Program which is a pipeline program for Chicago Public School students.

- The feedback group will be recruited by friends involved in the Teach Research study.
They must be named by one of their friends participating in Teach Research.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Participants 18 years or older as well as wards of the state will be excluded from the
study.