Cognitive Appraisal of Performance Capability in the Prevention of Drunken Driving: A Test of Self-Efficacy Theory

This experiment tested predictions derived from self-efficacy theory by exposing participants to one of two public service announcements based on either symbolic modeling or persuasive efficacy information. Each message was designed to heighten participants' self-efficacy to prevent a friend from driving drunk. Participants in the symbolic modeling condition viewed a public service announcement that demonstrated how to dissuade a friend from driving drunk, and those in the verbal persuasion condition viewed an announcement that only advocated performing the task. A control announcement mentioned the consequences of arrest for drunken driving but contained no efficacy information. Data were gathered during laboratory sessions and during follow-up interviews 1 month later. Overall, laboratory findings supported the hypothesized ordered effects for sources of efficacy information: Symbolic modeling engendered greater efficacy expectations and behavioral intentions than did persuasive efficacy information, which in turn surpassed the control condition on some measures of self-efficacy, but not on behavioral intentions where neither condition differed. Follow-up data indicated that participants in the efficacy-information treatments were equally successful at dissuading a friend from driving drunk, whereas the controls were not.     

Corporate dialogue in crises of China: Examining dialogic strategies and communicative outcomes in a child abuse scandal

Although dialogue has become a key concept in the field of public relations, little research has dealt with corporate dialogic strategies and communicative outcomes in crises of a non-Western context. Applying a mixed-method approach including both quantitative survey research and qualitative content analysis, this study analyzed both corporate dialogic strategies and public reactions in a social-mediated crisis in mainland China. Results demonstrated the corporation utilized both concertative and transformative dialogic strategies as the crisis progressed. After the crisis, concerned publics perceived low trust and moderate distrust towards the organization and reported five different communicative action intentions (i.e., mobilizing, information seeking, threatening, persuasion, and partnering). Trust and distrust exerted different impacts on publics’ post-crisis communicative action intentions and distrust was a stronger driver. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

An empirical assessment of the Above the Influence advertising campaign

This study evaluated the efficacy of Above the Influence (ATI), a national media-based health persuasion campaign to deter youth drug use. The campaign uses public service anti-drug prevention messages and targets youth between the ages of 14 and 16, a period of heightened susceptibility to peer influences. The evaluation utilized mall intercepts from geographically dispersed regions of the country. Theoretical impetus for the campaign combines elements of the theory of reasoned action (TRA), persuasion theory, and the health belief model. A series of structural equation models were tested with four randomly drawn cross-validation samples (N = 3,000). Findings suggest that awareness of ATI is associated with greater anti-drug beliefs, fewer drug use intentions, and less marijuana use. Congruent with the TRA, changes in beliefs and intentions are intermediate steps linking campaign awareness with behavior. This study provides further evidence of positive campaign effects and may strengthen reliance on mass media health persuasion campaigns as a useful adjunct to other programs targeting youth.     

Understanding publics’ perception and behaviors in crisis communication: Effects of crisis news framing and publics’ acquisition,selection, and transmission of information in crisis situations

This study aims to better understand publics’ perception and communicative behaviors in crisis communication. The extant research has overlooked how framing factors and different publics’ communicative behaviors directly influence crisis outcomes, including reputation and behavioral intentions. An online experiment with 1,113 participants was conducted to fill the gap. The findings demonstrated that preventable crisis news framing was a strong negative predictor for crisis outcomes. Another finding based on Communicative Action in Problem Solving (CAPS) in Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) revealed that information attending, forwarding, and seeking are positively associated with reputation and behavioral intentions.     

The Effects of Discriminate Message Interventions on Behavioral Intentions to Engage in Physical Activities

Objective: The authors attempt to show the usefulness of discriminate messages designed to increase college students' intentions to engage in physical activities. Participants: The authors selected a sample of undergraduate students enrolled in communication courses at a university in the southeastern United States for a baseline online survey (n = 683) and an experiment (n = 99). Methods: The authors selected discriminate beliefs with highest regression weights and sizable effect size with behavioral intention to build messages for classroom intervention. The authors used an analysis of covariance to test the intervention effect of discriminate messages on intention to do physical activities. Results: Students exposed to the discriminate messages were more likely to report positive changes in their self-efficacy and behavioral intentions related to physical activity. Conclusions: Further research on communication theories is required to help design the selected beliefs so that they will be comprehended and ultimately lead to behavioral changes.     

Dual modes of ‘Good will hunting’: Untangling the reputation and relationship correlations en route to foreign amity

The present study theorizes ways in which foreign publics’ different relationship building patterns are associated with the reputation of a host country and with the outcomes of those patterns, which yield positive behavioral intentions. The study first distinguished the reputational relationship group (i.e., those who lack firsthand experience with the host country) from the behavioral relationship group (i.e., those who have firsthand experience with the host country). Next, it further conceptualized and tested the structural paths that theoretically illustrate how reputation is built across these two different groups of foreign publics. Model testing results suggested that the two groups fit well with the respective models. The results imply that the puzzle of relationship’s and reputation’s causal influences on the formation of future behavior can be solved using differentiated communication strategies. An understanding of these two distinct processing models provides a new foundation for theory building in public relations and public diplomacy, as well as new ground for strategic relationship management with foreign publics.     

Employees as information influencers of organization’s CSR practices: The impacts of employee words on public perceptions of CSR

This study investigates the impact of employees’ words about their organization’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on external publics’ attitudes and behaviors toward the organization. Specifically, it examines how the valence (positive vs. negative) of employees’ words regarding a CSR campaign interacts with the type of channel (face-to-face vs. social media) of employees’ communication behaviors, and how these factors affect external publics’ perceived authenticity of the organization’s CSR, corporate attitudes, and purchasing intentions, respectively. An online experiment among 221 general consumers in the United States was conducted. The results demonstrated that negative messages regarding CSR distributed by employees in face-to-face communication decreased publics’ favorable attitudes and behavioral intentions to a greater extent than that distributed via social media (i.e., Facebook). However, the effect of communication channel became insignificant when positive messages regarding CSR were shared by employees. The results further showed that perceived authenticity mediated the effects of channel and message valence on publics’ attitudes and behavioral intentions. Theoretical and practical implications for CSR practices and employee communication are discussed.     

Relationship management through social media influencers: Effects of followers’ awareness of paid endorsement

This study aimed to examine the effects of awareness of paid endorsements by social media influencers on followers’ cognitive persuasion knowledge (ad recognition), attitudinal persuasion knowledge (relationships with the influencer), and behavioral intentions, specifically eWOM intention and purchase intention. Employing an online survey (N = 269), this study found that awareness of paid endorsement relates to ad recognition, which is correlated with purchase and eWOM intentions. We also found that awareness of paid endorsement is correlated with influencer-follower relationship, which is associated with purchase and eWOM intentions. However, ad recognition does not affect influencer-follower relationship. Implications for public relations theory, practice, and policy are discussed.     

Health belief factors and dispositional optimism as predictors of STD and HIV preventive behavior

Identifying factors predictive of youth's engaging in preventive behaviors related to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV remains a prominent public health concern. The utility of the Health Belief Model (HBM) continues to be suggested in identifying preventive behaviors. This study sought to examine the full HBM, including self-efficacy, with regard to STD and HIV preventive behavioral intentions in college students. Self-efficacy was identified as the primary predictor for each of the behavioral intentions (condom use, STD testing, and HIV testing), whereas response efficacy was only predictive of testing intentions. Inconsistent with HBM assumptions, perceived HIV severity was negatively related to HIV testing intentions. Students who perceived HIV as high in severity were less likely to intend to obtain HIV testing. Overall, the utility of the HBM in predicting college students' sexual preventive behavior was unsupported. An argument for a change in the direction of research, away from the continued emphasis on the study of cognitive variables, is made.     

It is time that matters in crisis communication: The role of temporal distance and crisis threat appraisal

The present study advances scholarly understanding of publics’ crisis responses by examining a potential role of temporal crisis distance and crisis threat appraisal from the perspective of publics. It explored whether and how temporal distance from the influence of crises (proximal future vs. distant future) might predict threat appraisal components (i.e., situational demands and required resources) and publics’ crisis responses (i.e., crisis emotions and supportive behavioral intentions). This study tested the mediation model to explicate how temporal crisis distance affected crisis responses through crisis threat appraisal. The results revealed that temporal crisis distance significantly predicted publics’ perception of situational demands, which in turn influenced crisis responses. Theoretical and practical implications for crisis communication are discussed.     

Factors that influence acceptance of web-based e-learning systems for the in-service education of junior high school teachers in Taiwan

Web-based e-learning is not restricted by time or place and can provide teachers with a learning environment that is flexible and convenient, enabling them to efficiently learn, quickly develop their professional expertise, and advance professionally. Many research reports on web-based e-learning have neglected the role of the teacher's perspective in the acceptance of using web-based e-learning systems for in-service education. We distributed questionnaires to 402 junior high school teachers in central Taiwan. This study used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as our theoretical foundation and employed the Structure Equation Model (SEM) to examine factors that influenced intentions to use in-service training conducted through web-based e-learning. The results showed that motivation to use and Internet self-efficacy were significantly positively associated with behavioral intentions regarding the use of web-based e-learning for in-service training through the factors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The factor of computer anxiety had a significantly negative effect on behavioral intentions toward web-based e-learning in-service training through the factor of perceived ease of use. Perceived usefulness and motivation to use were the primary reasons for the acceptance by junior high school teachers of web-based e-learning systems for in-service training.     

Efficacy and Outcome Expectations Influence Career Exploration and Decidedness

In this multiple regression model, self-efficacy beliefs are the best predictor of career indecision, and outcome expectations are the best predictor of exploration intentions. When indecision was entered as a predictor, it also was a significant predictor of exploration intentions—students who were less decided were also more likely to plan career exploration. Career efficacy and outcome expectations relate significantly more strongly within the group of college men than within the group of college women. Implications for social cognitive career theory and practice are discussed.     

Online posting anxiety: impacts on blogging

This study investigates what influences the blog-maintenance intentions of American and Chinese bloggers. Specifically, the current study investigates the role of online posting anxiety and its determinants. Based on social cognitive theory (SCT), this study suggests that bloggers experience anxiety because of their low blogging self-efficacy, negative outcome expectations, and the specific characteristics of blogs. To investigate this hypothesis, in-depth interviews were conducted to examine the nature of online posting anxiety among American and Chinese bloggers. Ten American and 16 Chinese bloggers were interviewed online about their beliefs pertaining to blogging self-efficacy, negative outcome expectations, and online posting anxiety. The current research therefore makes a unique and original contribution, in that this research applies social cognitive concepts to explain online posting anxiety in a computer-mediated communication (CMC) domain.     

The relationship among childhood risk and protective factors,racial microaggression and ethnic identity,and academic self-efficacy and antisocial behavior in young adulthood

We examined how childhood and adolescent risk and protective factors and perceptions of racial microaggression and ethnic identity during young adulthood contributed to academic self-efficacy, substance abuse, and criminal intentions of 409 undergraduate students enrolled in a public urban university. Participants (mean age — 24) completed a web-based survey subsequent to a stratified, random sampling procedure. Findings from structural equation models revealed that risk factors reflecting problem behavior during childhood were associated with higher levels of substance use and criminal intentions during adulthood. The early protective factor of school engagement was positively related to academic self-efficacy and negatively related to criminal intentions in young adults. Racial microaggression was inversely related, while ethnic identity was positively associated, with academic self-efficacy among young adults after controlling for the influence of child and adolescent risk and protective factors. Implications for advancing interventions that address the influence of child and adolescent risk and protective factors, racial microaggression, and ethnic identity on academic and behavioral outcomes for young adults are noted.     

Prioritizing relationships: The investment model and relationship maintenance strategies in organizational crises

Crisis communication and crisis management are dominated by research in image repair and restoration, but much has to be done to address the lack of research that engages relational perspectives in these fields. Adopting the investment model (Rusbult, 1980) as a theoretical framework and using structural equation modeling, the study develops a crisis relational maintenance model to explain how organizations can (re)build relationships with publics. Survey results show that publics’ commitment and publics’ trust are two significant mediators that influence publics’ relational behaviors post-crisis. The investment model provides a suitable framework to explain publics’ commitment to an organization, with explained variance more than 90 percent, and an organization’s relationship maintenance strategies during and post-crisis significantly affect publics’ trust. Whether an organization’s relationships with the publics can be maintained or repaired depends on whether an organization engages in these relationship maintenance strategies that prioritize publics’ need, which can be reciprocated from publics as publics reorient themselves along with the long-term goals and well-being of the relationships. Results of this study call for further attention on relationship maintenance approaches in crisis communication and management research.     

Factors associated with provision of instrumental social support for physical activity in a foster parent population

PurposeTo examine demographic and psychosocial factors associated with foster parent’s provision of instrumental social support for physical activity among foster youth.MethodNinety-one foster parents completed surveys to assess perceptions of foster child physical activity (activity level, enjoyment, and coordination), five psychosocial variables from Theory of Planned Behavior (positive and negative behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, perceived behavioral control) and self-efficacy to provide instrumental social support for youth physical activity. Associations between these variables and instrumental social support were determined using multiple regression analysis.ResultsMore supportive normative beliefs and higher self-efficacy for providing instrumental social support, and length of time a foster child resided in the foster parent household were significantly associated with greater provision of instrumental social support.ConclusionAmong foster parents, the perceived social expectations about providing instrumental social support and self-efficacy to provide instrumental social support for physical activity appear to be important influences on foster parent provision of instrumental social support for youth physical activity.     

Reassessing Corporate Image—An Examination of How Image Bridges Symbolic Relationships With Behavioral Relationships

Abstract

In this study we examine corporate image by identifying how image congruency might exert an impact on a public's beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward an organization in a time of crisis for that organization. An experiment was conducted to test the research questions, and the results of the study revealed that a corporation that presented image congruency with a public's expectations could maintain public approval when there was no crisis. In the event of a crisis, however, image congruency might also protect the company via an indirect route. Given image congruency, a public's behavioral intentions toward the corporation seemed to remain consistent regardless of situational changes.     

Effects of a self-efficacy intervention on initiation of recommended exercises in patients with spondylosis

An intervention designed to enhance preaction self-efficacy beliefs (i.e., beliefs about ability to initiate behavior despite anticipated barriers during the initiation period) was tested in patients with spondylosis in relation to initiation of exercises recommended by a consultant in orthopedic rehabilitation. Sixty patients (age 28-83 years; 44% men) with spondylosis who had not previously performed exercises recommended for degenerative spine diseases were randomly assigned to a control (education session) or intervention group. Three weeks later, intervention patients performed recommended exercises more frequently than controls. Regression analysis for all patients showed that preintervention, preaction self-efficacy predicted exercise. Age and preintervention self-efficacy moderated the intervention effects. Among older patients, only those with weak preintervention, preaction self-efficacy beliefs benefited from the intervention, whereas among younger patients, only those with strong preintervention, preaction self-efficacy beliefs benefited from the intervention.     

Effects of crisis efficacy on intentions to follow directives during crisis

Self-efficacy has consistently been a useful predictor of behavioral intentions as a construct in many theories; yet, its role in audience adherence to instructing information during crisis is relatively unexplored. A national survey (N = 454) examines self-efficacy in public response to crisis directives and develops the concept of crisis efficacy as an important area for future research. In three crisis contexts (food-borne illness, weather emergency, and public health disease threat), crisis efficacy, along with several demographics, significantly predicted public response to instructing information. Crisis efficacy emerges as a construct with great potential to inform message design in crisis communication.     

Timeliness,responsiveness and the human voice: The effects of dialogic strategies and the mediating role of perceived communication ethicality on social media relationship building

This study investigates how social media can be better managed to cultivate positive organization-public relationships. It advances an expanded and integrated conceptual model to test how the communication features of corporate pages on social networking sites may influence publics’ perception of the organization’s communication ethicality, which further predicts organization-public relationships as a compound index of trust, commitment, and satisfaction. The results, based on structural equation modeling, showed that three important communication strategies are success factors that could shape perceptions of communication ethicality: timeliness, responsiveness, and the use of human voice in a dialogic framework. In particular, publics’ perception of the organization’s communication ethicality emerged as a key mediator driving communication effects to foster positive relationships with stakeholders in an online environment.