title: A sequential decision framework for increasing college students' support for organ donation and organ donor registration.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite the fact that college students support social causes, this age group has underparticipated in organ donor registration. Little research attention has been given to understanding deeper, higher-order relationships between the antecedent attitudes toward and perceptions of organ donation and registration behavior.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To test a process model useful for understanding the sequential ordering of information necessary for moving college students along a hierarchical decision-making continuum from awareness to support to organ donor registration.
  
  
  METHODS
  The University of Wisconsin organ procurement organization collaborated with the Collegiate American Marketing Association on a 2-year grant funded by the US Health Resources and Services Administration. A total of 981 association members responded to an online questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 5 antecedent measures were awareness of organ donation, need acknowledgment, benefits of organ donation, social support, and concerns about organ donation. The 2 consequence variables were support for organ donation and organ donation registration.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Structural equation modeling indicated that 5 of 10 direct antecedent pathways led significantly into organ donation support and registration. The impact of the nonsignificant variables was captured via indirect effects through other decision variables. Model fit statistics were good: the goodness of fit index was .998, the adjusted goodness of fit index was .992, and the root mean square error of approximation was .001.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This sequential decision-making model provides insight into the need to enhance the acceptance of organ donation and organ donor registration through a series of communications to move people from awareness to behavior.
authors.affiliation: College of Business and Economics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI 53190, USA. peltierj@uww.edu
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Peltier
authors.forename: Anthony M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: D'Alessandro
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Dahl
authors.forename: Thomas Hugh
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Feeley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000533:Altruism; D001364:Awareness; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012944:Social Support; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities; D014922:Wisconsin