- Yen-I is an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Media Mind Lab in Murrow College of Communication at Washington St... moreYen-I is an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Media Mind Lab in Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. Her primary research is in the areas of health communication and strategic communication, focusing on the role of messaging content, technology use, and emotions in the context of health crisis and risk communication. Her research also takes the Psychophysiological and Eye-Tracking approaches to investigate the role of of visual attention as well as cognitive and emotional processing in health persuasion.edit
Recent years have seen 360-degree virtual reality (VR) being used as a valuable tool in communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns. Built upon the wealth of literature on stimulus-organism-response (S-OR) theory, this... more
Recent years have seen 360-degree virtual reality (VR) being used as a valuable tool in communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns. Built upon the wealth of literature on stimulus-organism-response (S-OR) theory, this study proposed to test a model integrating perceived control of the 360-degree CSR VR technology, telepresence, engagement with VR 360-degree video (VR engagement), CSR advocacy, and purchase intentions. To that end, a nationally representative sample was recruited for a survey that exposed participants to a digital CSR campaign that uses 360-degree VR to increase mental health awareness. Results showed a significant association between participants' perceived control over the VR 360-degree CSR campaign and telepresence as well as their engagement with the VR 360-degree video. Moreover, telepresence and VR engagement were significant mediators in predicting consumers' willingness to promote social initiatives (CSR advocacy) and purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed.
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This research addresses how positive and negative publicity about athlete endorsers influences motivational mechanisms (appetitive and aversive) underlying cognitive and affective processing and evaluation to ads. Participants viewed an... more
This research addresses how positive and negative publicity about athlete endorsers influences motivational mechanisms (appetitive and aversive) underlying cognitive and affective processing and evaluation to ads. Participants viewed an ad for a soft drink brand that featured an athlete endorser while psychophysiological measures of cognition, emotion, and arousal were collected. Each ad was preceded by a news story that contained either positive or negative information about the athlete’s off -fi eld behavior. Results indicate that cognition and arousal were enhanced in response to ads paired with negative news stories compared to ads paired with positive news stories. Findings suggest that aversive motivational activation elicited by the negative news stories transfers to processing and evaluation of the ads
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Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-crx-10.1177_00936502211018542 for Living at the Speed of Mobile: How Users Evaluate Social Media News Posts on Smartphones by Kate Keib, Bartosz W. Wojdynski, Camila Espina, Jennifer Malson, Brittany... more
Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-crx-10.1177_00936502211018542 for Living at the Speed of Mobile: How Users Evaluate Social Media News Posts on Smartphones by Kate Keib, Bartosz W. Wojdynski, Camila Espina, Jennifer Malson, Brittany Jefferson and Yen-I Lee in Communication Research
Supplemental material, sj-pdf-2-crx-10.1177_00936502211018542 for Living at the Speed of Mobile: How Users Evaluate Social Media News Posts on Smartphones by Kate Keib, Bartosz W. Wojdynski, Camila Espina, Jennifer Malson, Brittany... more
Supplemental material, sj-pdf-2-crx-10.1177_00936502211018542 for Living at the Speed of Mobile: How Users Evaluate Social Media News Posts on Smartphones by Kate Keib, Bartosz W. Wojdynski, Camila Espina, Jennifer Malson, Brittany Jefferson and Yen-I Lee in Communication Research
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This study integrates theories of metanarration and crisis narratives to identify optimal approaches to managing uncertain and high-pressure crisis situations. An online experiment used a U.S. adult sample to examine how (1) the primary... more
This study integrates theories of metanarration and crisis narratives to identify optimal approaches to managing uncertain and high-pressure crisis situations. An online experiment used a U.S. adult sample to examine how (1) the primary narrative in a news story about the victim and (2) the secondary narrative with different crisis narratives used by the accused organization impacted the outcomes of the organization’s public communication about the ongoing crisis situation. Results showed that the secondary narrative, emphasizing renewal, played a significant role in (1) lowering perceived organizational crisis responsibility, (2) lessening organizational reputation damage, and (3) boosting supportive intention toward the organization. In addition, findings revealed that perceived organizational crisis responsibility and perceived organizational reputation functioned as sequential mediators for the relationship between the secondary narrative (using renewal crisis narrative) and par...
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In response to calls for greater integration of research on the effects of visual images in the emotional and cognitive processing of health-related posts on Facebook, this study examined the questions of how gain-and-loss framed images,... more
In response to calls for greater integration of research on the effects of visual images in the emotional and cognitive processing of health-related posts on Facebook, this study examined the questions of how gain-and-loss framed images, the valence of emoticon responses, and level of personal relevance of health topics contribute toward intentional engagement (e.g., sharing the posts) on Facebook. This study conducted a 2 (visual framing: gain vs. loss) × 2 (personal relevance of health topic: high vs. low) × 2 (emoticon valence: positive vs. negative) mixed-factorial experiment. A total of 187 college students were recruited to assess the impact of visual framing, personal relevance, and emoticon valence on sharing intention. Results showed that negative emoticons led to a higher intention to share health news posts than positive emoticons. Moreover, two parallel mediation models showed that (a) gain-framed images with high-relevance topics positively predicted perceived susceptib...
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Higher education institutions and their students face a wide range of infectious disease threats (IDTs). However, there is a lack of theory-driven research on how to provide communication for multiple IDTs to motivate protective action... more
Higher education institutions and their students face a wide range of infectious disease threats (IDTs). However, there is a lack of theory-driven research on how to provide communication for multiple IDTs to motivate protective action taking. To close this gap, this study focuses on college students and two IDT types: respiratory and sexually transmitted infections. We tested an IDT appraisal model with data from an online survey conducted at two U.S. universities with 842 students. Findings indicate that IDT type led to different patterns of threat appraisal and protective action taking intentions. More specifically, participants perceived sexually transmitted threats as significantly more predictable and more controllable than respiratory threats. Participants also had higher intention to take protective action in response to respiratory threats than sexually-transmitted threats. We also found that external attribution-dependent (EAD) emotions (i.e., anger, sadness, surprise, and...
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A growing body of research suggests that differences between smartphones and desktop computers influence information processing outcomes. A within-subjects (N = 64) smartphone eye-tracking experime...
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ABSTRACT During public health crises like infectious disease outbreaks, news media and governments are responsible for informing the public about how to protect themselves. A large body of health communication research finds that... more
ABSTRACT During public health crises like infectious disease outbreaks, news media and governments are responsible for informing the public about how to protect themselves. A large body of health communication research finds that persuasive narratives motivate protective behaviors, such as intentions to vaccinate. In their seminal book on crisis narratives, Seeger and Sellnow (Narratives of crisis: Telling stories of ruin and renewal. Stanford University) theorized five narrative types: blame, renewal, victim, hero, and memorial. In this study, we tested how the public responds to crisis narratives about a hypothetical infectious disease crisis, modeled after narratives emerging from the 2014–2016 Ebola pandemic, through an online experiment with a U.S. adult sample (N = 1050). Findings showcase which crisis narratives positively affect public protective behaviors as well as emotional responses, assessments of information credibility, and attributions of crisis responsibility.
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PurposeAlthough uncertainty has been identified as a key crisis characteristic and a multi-faceted construct essential to effective crisis management research and practice, only a few studies examined publics' perceived uncertainty... more
PurposeAlthough uncertainty has been identified as a key crisis characteristic and a multi-faceted construct essential to effective crisis management research and practice, only a few studies examined publics' perceived uncertainty with a focus on crisis severity uncertainty, leaving crisis responsibility uncertainty uninvestigated in organizational crisis settings.Design/methodology/approachTo close this research gap empirically, this study employed data from an online survey of a total of 817 US adults to examine how participants' crisis responsibility uncertainty and their attribution-based crisis emotions might impact their crisis responses such as further crisis information seeking.FindingsFirst, findings show that participants' crisis responsibility uncertainty was negatively associated with their attribution-independent (AI) crisis emotions (i.e. anxiety, fear, apprehension and sympathy) and external-attribution-dependent (EAD) crisis emotions (i.e. disgust, conte...
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ABSTRACT In an effort to improve transparency, Facebook changed its disclosures on in-feed native political advertisements in 2018 to include language that identifies who paid for the ad to appear. The present study (N = 120) utilized a... more
ABSTRACT In an effort to improve transparency, Facebook changed its disclosures on in-feed native political advertisements in 2018 to include language that identifies who paid for the ad to appear. The present study (N = 120) utilized a between-participants eye-tracking experiment to assess the impact of three different disclosure conditions on Facebook users’ visual attention to the disclosure, recall of the disclosure, and the ability to identify the sponsor of the advertisement. Findings suggest that while users do give visual attention to Facebook’s new political ad disclosure, the disclosure language is not effective at enhancing users’ comprehension of who paid the political advertisements.
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Abstract Crisis misinformation, including false information about a crisis or a crisis-stricken organization, has become a fundamental threat to organizational wellbeing. Effective crisis response geared toward fighting crisis... more
Abstract Crisis misinformation, including false information about a crisis or a crisis-stricken organization, has become a fundamental threat to organizational wellbeing. Effective crisis response geared toward fighting crisis misinformation demands a more systematic approach to corrective communication. Grounded in misinformation debunking theory, this study aims to advance misinformation research in public relations and organizational crisis communication. An online experiment using a U.S. adult sample (N = 817) was conducted to examine the effects of corrective communication strategy (simple rebuttal vs. factual elaboration) and employee backup (present vs. absent) on perceived message quality, organizational reputation, and perceived crisis responsibility. Results show: 1) the use of factual elaboration and the presence of employee backup were direct contributors to crisis response effectiveness; and 2) perceived message quality mediates the effect of corrective communication. This study provides insights into advancing crisis communication theory and offers evidence-based recommendations for practitioners to combat crisis misinformation more effectively.
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Abstract This study examined effects of Facebook reaction icons and user comments on brand attitude, trust, information seeking, purchase intention, and eWOM intention towards a health brand, as well as potential moderating effects of SNS... more
Abstract This study examined effects of Facebook reaction icons and user comments on brand attitude, trust, information seeking, purchase intention, and eWOM intention towards a health brand, as well as potential moderating effects of SNS use. Results of a 3 (reaction icons: positive/neutral/negative) × 3 (valence of comments: positive/neutral/negative) between-subjects experiment (N = 306) indicated that positive Facebook reaction icons significantly influenced brand attitude, trust, purchase intention, and eWOM intention, while neutral comments significantly impacted brand attitude and trust. The degree of SNS use also negatively moderated between reaction icon valence and eWOM intention. Implications for health marketing communication are discussed.
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A common challenge facing public health practitioners and social marketers is how best to frame and present benefit–risk information in campaigns that aim to change perceptions and increase acceptance of health recommendations, such as... more
A common challenge facing public health practitioners and social marketers is how best to frame and present benefit–risk information in campaigns that aim to change perceptions and increase acceptance of health recommendations, such as vaccinations. Given that public service advertisements and brand promises are often core components of social marketing and health communication efforts, this study examined whether, and how, framing and the use of text or image support to convey influenza vaccination brand promises affected college-attending young adults’ beliefs and intentions regarding influenza vaccination. PSAs that varied with respect to gain or loss frame and type of support provided (i.e., image vs. text-supported) were used as the stimulus material. The findings indicated two pairings performed equally well with respect to the outcome measures used. A gain-framed image-supported PSA and a loss-framed text-supported PSA were both associated with the highest levels of positive ...
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Depression is one of the most severe health threats to the college student population. Depression communication plays an essential role in reducing stigma and discrimination against sufferers. However, the effectiveness of such... more
Depression is one of the most severe health threats to the college student population. Depression communication plays an essential role in reducing stigma and discrimination against sufferers. However, the effectiveness of such communication remains understudied, especially when it comes to the psychological process of connecting outcomes of depression messages and communication. To tackle this challenge, this study examined how and what depression coverage with a news framing strategy and attribution approach influenced college students’ affective and cognitive responses as well as their willingness to provide social support to depression sufferers. Key findings include first: controlling for issue involvement, depression coverage with episodic framing and societal responsibility attribution evoked the most sympathy among participants; and second: sympathy toward the depressed individual and efficacy in depression identification served as sequential mediators for the effects of the depression coverage with episodic framing and societal attribution on social support willingness. These insights suggest that health communication researchers and practitioners should use effective storytelling to evoke more sympathy, which then activates higher efficacy and leads to stronger social support willingness.
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Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Advancements in health information technology (HealthIT) and the electronic exchanges of health information have “revolutionized” health systems in the US. However, adopting technological developments into the healthcare system... more
ABSTRACT Advancements in health information technology (HealthIT) and the electronic exchanges of health information have “revolutionized” health systems in the US. However, adopting technological developments into the healthcare system has the potential to benefit populations with more resources, further exacerbating health status disparities. Efficacious utilization of HealthIT requires eHealth literacy. Although eHealth literacy is comprised of six factors, new research indicates that the components related to technology literacy may be more impactful in eHealth literacy among certain populations (e.g., older populations who shoulder a greater illness-management burden). Recognizing the importance of technology literacy in eHealth literacy across the lifespan, we investigate generational differences in New Communication Technology (NCT) use and eHealth literacy, especially considering how NCT adoption theory might systematically inform scholars’ understanding of eHealth literacy. Participants included 525 adults primarily in the Midwestern United States. We found significant differences between generational groups across all variables. We found that UTAUT determinants such as performance expectancy and effort expectancy explained 38% of the variance in eHealth literacy, controlling for age, sex, level of education, and prior online health information seeking. Finally, we engaged with early critiques of UTAUT, finding that when applying UTAUT in voluntary (vs. mandatory) contexts, scholars should reconsider variables previously dismissed, such as attitude. In doing this, we extend UTAUT in three ways: new contexts (voluntary NCT adoption), endogenous theoretical mechanisms (eHealth literacy), and exogenous variables (attitude; lifespan). These findings underscore a need for a targeted approach to improve eHealth literacy and health self-management across generations.
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Abstract In this study, we examined the effects of two different levels of personalization strategies (individual-level vs. group-level) on consumers’ visual and attitudinal responses to personalized advertising. We further investigated... more
Abstract In this study, we examined the effects of two different levels of personalization strategies (individual-level vs. group-level) on consumers’ visual and attitudinal responses to personalized advertising. We further investigated the moderating role of recipients’ narcissism in the effect of personalization. Results show that individuals higher in narcissism paid greater and more frequent attention to ads personalized on an individual level than to those personalized on a group level, while individuals low in narcissism showed no such differences. Regarding attitudinal response, consumers with a high level of narcissism tended to have a more favourable attitude towards the individual-level personalized ad compared to those with a low level of narcissism, while consumers with a low level of narcissism tended to have a more favourable attitude towards the group-level personalized ad compared to those with a high level of narcissism. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
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This longitudinal pedagogical research investigates students’ perceptions and learning outcomes by integrating web and social analytics–based learning activities (i.e., Google Analytics courses and certification test) into Public... more
This longitudinal pedagogical research investigates students’ perceptions and learning outcomes by integrating web and social analytics–based learning activities (i.e., Google Analytics courses and certification test) into Public Relations Research course design. Results from the pretest before introducing the analytics learning assignment confirmed that students’ knowledge on web and social analytics is low but their desire to learn is high. Results from the posttest after passing the certification test indicated students are eager to have more experience-based learning activities to apply knowledge related to web and social analytics in public relations research and practice. More pedagogical recommendations are discussed.
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ABSTRACT Social media platforms have become the primary conduits to news for many consumers, yet little is known about how the content in social media posts is viewed and evaluated by consumers or how it shapes their decisions about... more
ABSTRACT Social media platforms have become the primary conduits to news for many consumers, yet little is known about how the content in social media posts is viewed and evaluated by consumers or how it shapes their decisions about selecting and sharing this information. A within-subjects eye-tracking experiment (N = 60), was conducted to examine the influence of image presence and valence on attention to and engagement with news stories on social media. Participants viewed a series of 29 social media posts of news stories, each of which was either paired with no image, a positively valenced image, or a negatively valenced image. Participants attention to the images was captured via eye tracking, and they answered dependent measures to gauge level of emotion and arousal, and intention to click and share. The results show that posts containing positive images elicited a higher level of visual attention than those with negative or no images, which led to higher intentions to click and share posts with positive images. The results provide a deeper understanding of the importance of images in driving news consumption, and offer practical implications for journalists, news organizations and groups using social media to spread a message.
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This study explores social media users' personality traits and motivations for the usage of two different social media platforms, Facebook and Pinterest, as well as how the varied uses impact users' negative emotional experiences.... more
This study explores social media users' personality traits and motivations for the usage of two different social media platforms, Facebook and Pinterest, as well as how the varied uses impact users' negative emotional experiences. The findings suggest that the intensity of social media usage is positively related to negative emotions. For Facebook users, socialization, entertainment, and information seeking motivations significantly influence their platform use intensity and, subsequently, lead to negative emotions. Self-status seeking also has a direct effect on Facebook users' negative emotions. For Pinterest users, socialization is not a significant motivation for usage of that platform. However, entertainment, information seeking, and self-status seeking significantly predict their platform use intensity, which subsequently lead to negative emotions. Similarly, all four motivations for Facebook and Pinterest uses are influenced by users' personality traits: extra...
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ABSTRACT How to engage stakeholders effectively with different social media platforms is an important topic in strategic communication research. Grounded in uses and gratifications theory, consumption emotion theory, and temporal... more
ABSTRACT How to engage stakeholders effectively with different social media platforms is an important topic in strategic communication research. Grounded in uses and gratifications theory, consumption emotion theory, and temporal orientation framework, this study conducted an online survey among social media users in the United States (N = 940) to examine how individuals’ motivations, emotions, and temporal orientations in social media use might differ by multi-platform usage groups (i.e., Facebook+Instagram users vs. Facebook+Pinterset users). Our findings indicate that Facebook+Instagram users focus more on self-status seeking and entertainment, while Facebook+Pinterest users are more information-seeking driven and future-oriented. In addition, more optimism is detected among Facebook+Pinterest users. Implications for strategic communication theory development as well as insights for organization-stakeholder engagement on social media are discussed.
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ABSTRACT Depression is now one of the most severe public health threats in China and among Chinese college students. To examine the effects of depression news coverage on Chinese college students’ mental health literacy, focusing on their... more
ABSTRACT Depression is now one of the most severe public health threats in China and among Chinese college students. To examine the effects of depression news coverage on Chinese college students’ mental health literacy, focusing on their perceived efficacy in recognizing depression symptoms, a 2 (news framing: episodic vs. thematic) × 2 (responsibility attribution: individual vs. societal) × 2 (gender: female vs. male) between-subjects experiment was conducted among 187 students at a large research university in China. The key findings, after controlling for depression issue involvement, include: (1) the main effects of attribution on perceived efficacy in identifying others (friends and family members) with depression; (2) the association between gender and perceived efficacy in identifying family members with depression; and (3) the three-way interactions on how framing, attribution, and gender jointly affect not only perceived efficacy in identifying others but also themselves with depression. These findings provide insights on how depression news coverage can help enhance mental health literacy and build stronger depression symptom resilience among Chinese college students. Implications for health journalists and public health communication professionals in China are discussed.
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Research Interests:
This study first refines the conceptual framework of publics’ communicative behavior in social mediated health crises. Then two multiple-item scales for measuring publics’ health crisis information seeking and sharing (CISS) are developed... more
This study first refines the conceptual framework of publics’ communicative behavior in social mediated health crises. Then two multiple-item scales for measuring publics’ health crisis information seeking and sharing (CISS) are developed and tested by employing online survey data sets from a random national sample of 279 adults and 280 adults in the United States, respectively. Results indicate seven types of crisis information seeking behavior and 17 types of crisis information sharing behavior crossing over platforms, channels, and information sources. The CISS scales provide a valid and reliable tool for crisis communication researchers and practitioners to measure publics’ information seeking and sharing activities in social-mediated public health crisis communication.
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Depression is now one of the most severe public health threats in China and among Chinese college students. To examine the effects of depression news coverage on Chinese college students’ mental health literacy, focusing on their... more
Depression is now one of the most severe public health threats in China and among Chinese college students. To examine the effects of depression news coverage on Chinese college students’ mental health literacy, focusing on their perceived efficacy in recognizing depression symptoms, a 2 (news framing: episodic vs. thematic) × 2 (responsibility attribution: individual vs. societal) × 2 (gender: female vs. male) between-subjects experiment was conducted among 187 students at a large research university in China. The key findings, after controlling for depression issue involvement, include: (1) the main effects of attribution on perceived efficacy in identifying others (friends and family members) with depression; (2) the association between gender and perceived efficacy in identifying family members with depression; and (3) the three-way interactions on how framing, attribution, and gender jointly affect not only perceived efficacy in identifying others but also themselves with depression. These findings provide insights on how depression news coverage can help enhance mental health literacy and build stronger
depression symptom resilience among Chinese college students. Implications for health journalists and public health communication professionals in China are discussed.
depression symptom resilience among Chinese college students. Implications for health journalists and public health communication professionals in China are discussed.
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Social media platforms have become the primary conduits to news for many consumers, yet little is known about how the content in social media posts is viewed and evaluated by consumers or how it shapes their decisions about selecting and... more
Social media platforms have become the primary conduits to news for many consumers, yet little is known about how the content in social media posts is viewed and evaluated by consumers or how it shapes their decisions about selecting and sharing this information. A within-subjects eye-tracking experiment (N = 60), was conducted to examine the influence of image presence and valence on attention to and engagement with news stories on social media. Participants viewed a series of 29 social media posts of news stories, each of which was either paired with no image, a positively valenced image, or a negatively valenced image. Participants attention to the images was captured via eye tracking, and they answered dependent measures to gauge level of emotion and arousal, and intention to click and share. The results show that posts containing positive images elicited a higher level of visual attention than those with negative or no images, which led to higher intentions to click and share posts with positive images. The results provide a deeper understanding of the importance of images in driving news consumption, and offer practical implications for journalists, news organizations and groups using social media to spread a message.
Research Interests:
This study explores social media users' personality traits and motivations for the usage of two different social media platforms, Facebook and Pinterest, as well as how the varied uses impact users' negative emotional experiences. The... more
This study explores social media users' personality traits and motivations for the usage of two different social media platforms, Facebook and Pinterest, as well as how the varied uses impact users' negative emotional experiences. The findings suggest that the intensity of social media usage is positively related to negative emotions. For Facebook users, socialization, entertainment, and information seeking motivations significantly influence their platform use intensity and, subsequently, lead to negative emotions. Self-status seeking also has a direct effect on Facebook users' negative emotions. For Pinterest users, socialization is not a significant motivation for usage of that platform. However, entertainment, information seeking, and self-status seeking significantly predict their platform use intensity, which subsequently lead to negative emotions. Similarly, all four motivations for Facebook and Pinterest uses are influenced by users' personality traits: extraversion and openness. Yet, openness has a greater impact on using Pinterest than Facebook in terms of fulfilling socialization needs. Neuroticism has a positive impact on socialization and information seeking motives for use of both platforms, while conscientiousness and agreeableness have a negative influence on fulfilling self-status seeking needs. In addition, agreeable social networking site users are less likely to use Facebook than Pinterest for fulfilling self-status related gratifications, while they are likely to use Pinterest instead of Facebook for entertainment and information needs. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.
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How to engage stakeholders effectively with different social media platforms is an important topic in strategic communication research. Grounded in uses and gratifications theory, consumption emotion theory, and temporal orientation... more
How to engage stakeholders effectively with different social media platforms is an important topic in strategic communication research. Grounded in uses and gratifications theory, consumption emotion theory, and temporal orientation framework, this study conducted an online survey among social media users in the United States (N = 940) to examine how individuals’ motivations, emotions, and temporal orientations in social media use might differ by multi-platform usage groups (i.e., Facebook+Instagram users vs. Facebook+Pinterset users). Our findings indicate that Facebook+Instagram users focus more on self-status seeking and entertainment, while Facebook+Pinterest users are more information-seeking driven and future-oriented. In addition, more optimism is detected among Facebook+Pinterest users. Implications for strategic communication theory development as well as insights for organization-stakeholder engagement on social media are discussed.
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Objective: Several entities have been implementing measures to improve individuals' attitudes toward people with disability (PwD) with varying successes. This study aims to use the case of an intergroup interaction program (Intergroup... more
Objective: Several entities have been implementing measures to improve individuals' attitudes toward people with disability (PwD) with varying successes. This study aims to use the case of an intergroup interaction program (Intergroup Communication Intervention; ICI) to explore issues related to PwD-attitude change, especially how attitudes may change for better or for worse, as a part of the intergroup communication. The goal of the ICI is to positively affect college students' attitudes about out-group members through systematic, supported, longitudinal intergroup contact. Methods: This study employed a case study methodology to identify factors that impact college students' attitudes toward PwD. Twenty-four students from a Midwestern University partnered with PwDs at a local residential facility and wrote reflective notes about their experiences. The notes were analyzed using a qualitative evaluation methodology. Results: Findings showed that students' attitudes toward PwD changed during the relationship building process; specifically, when they focused on the capabilities of PwD instead of their disability and as they confronted their inherent biases about PwD. Students also described more PwD observed comfort with and disclosure to students more after consistent interactions. Conclusion: We suggest that intervention programs aimed at improving attitudes about PwD should be longitudinal and include opportunities for direct interaction between PwD and differently-abled individuals.
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Individuals’ attitudes about persons with disability (PwD) strongly affect differently-abled persons’ quality of life and position in society. Some research offers support for the ability of systematic, supported, longitudinal contact... more
Individuals’ attitudes about persons with disability (PwD) strongly affect differently-abled persons’ quality of life and position in society. Some research offers support for the ability of systematic, supported, longitudinal contact between different groups of individuals to improve attitudes. College campuses, in particular, offer a potentially useful arena in which to facilitate this type of contact. This study explored contextual factors (eg, geographic region, biological sex) and predictors of disability-related attitudes among a college student population to determine strategies for course-based intervention design (eg, as community-engaged or service-learning initiatives). Surveying participants from universities in two regions of the United States, we found that self-esteem, audience-based communication apprehension, and contact with PwD explain more than 50% of the variance in disability-related attitudes. Further, we found that geographic location affects both self-esteem and audience-based communication apprehension (communicating/interacting with PwD). We discuss the implications for community engagement and/or service learning and highlight the importance of partnerships among relevant community stakeholders, including university faculty, students, and staff.