title: The influence of antiobesity media content on intention to eat healthily and exercise: a test of the ordered protection motivation theory.
abstract: This study extended the ordered protection motivation framework to determine whether exposure and attention to antiobesity media content increases people's appraisals of threat and their ability to cope with it. It also assesses whether these cognitive processes, in turn, affected people's intention to abide by the practices recommended to prevent obesity. The results of a national online survey using a nonprobability sample indicate that attention to mediated obesity and related information significantly increased people's intention to exercise as well as their overall coping appraisals (the perceived effectiveness of the recommended behaviors and their ability to perform them). Likewise, increased threat and coping appraisals were both found to significantly influence people's intention to exercise and diet. Coping (rather than threat) appraisals more strongly predicted behavioral intent. Following the attitude-behavior literature, behavioral intention was used as the most proximate predictor of actual behavior (i.e., stronger intentions increase the likelihood of behavior change).
authors.affiliation: Department of English, Iowa State University, 317 Carver Hall, Ames, IA 50011-2060, USA.
authors.forename: Raeann
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ritland
authors.affiliation: Agricultural Communications Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 274 Bevier Hall, 905 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Lulu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008402:Mass Media; D009042:Motivation; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology