title: Effects of a persuasive communication on beliefs, attitudes, and career choice.
abstract: Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action was used to formulate a persuasive communication in an attempt to influence unclassified American college students' beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors regarding signing up for a career as a registered nurse. A two-stage cluster sample was used to assign 90 male and female students to either an experimental or control group. After persuasive communication exposure, the experimental group showed a significantly more positive change in beliefs, attitudes, and intentions than did the control group exposed to a neutral message. Sign-up rate was also statistically significant for the experimental group. With the Fishbein model to predict sign-up behavior, no other scores were found to add to the prediction once behavioral intention was entered into the model. Change in behavioral intention explained 49% of the variation in behavior. Normative belief scores did not approach statistical significance.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Strader
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Katz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002321:Career Choice; D004506:Education, Nursing; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010565:Persuasive Communication