Academic beliefs and prescription stimulant misuse among college students: Investigating academic locus of control, grade orientation, and academic entitlement.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the relationship of students' academic beliefs to the theoretical predictors of prescription stimulant misuse outlined in the Theory of Planned Behavior. PARTICIPANTS: Participants included 147 college students (Mage = 19.65) from a mid-sized university in the Southwestern United States. METHOD: An online questionnaire distributed in the 10th week of the semester assessed students' academic locus of control, grade orientation, and academic entitlement in relation to their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, behavioral intention, and actual misuse behavior. RESULTS: Partial correlations controlling for age, gender, and Greek life involvement indicated that academic locus of control is significantly related to all TPB variables aside from actual behavior, while grade orientation was related to perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention. Academic entitlement was not related to TPB variables in this study. CONCLUSIONS: The associations between academic beliefs and prescription stimulant misuse hold theoretical and practical implications.

Interpersonal Communication in Eye Care: An Analysis of Potential Impacts on Cataract Surgery Candidates' Expectations and Behaviors.

Purpose: To identify cataract surgery candidates' knowledge, beliefs, desires and emotions as they relate to cataract surgery generally as well as to their behavioral intent to adhere to a doctor-recommended pre-surgical ocular surface prep routine designed to improve refractive outcomes and prevent surgical complications. Methods: This national, noninterventional, cross-sectional, mixed methods survey included 278 US adults ages 65 and older with no history of cataract surgery in either eye. Results: Only 20% of participants said they want to have cataract surgery, and even fewer (8%) said they wish they could have cataract surgery right away. Fear was the predominant emotion in one out of every three respondents and was correlated with intention to delay having cataract surgery for as long as possible (r = 0.44). Fewer than 2% of participants said their doctors recommended home-health strategies to combat the risks of ocular surface disease preoperatively. However, most say they would use a pre-surgical prep kit if their doctor gave them one (87%), asked them to buy one (83%), or directed them to obtain one online (71%). Conclusion: These findings negate the popular assumption that patients are in a hurry to have their cataract surgery right away and, therefore, may resist physician recommendations to address ocular surface disease pre-operatively.

Student intentions to engage instructors in mental health-related conversations: An application of the theory of planned behavior.

OBJECTIVE: Considering that college students experience mental health issues and college counseling centers are overwhelmed, this study identifies instructors as a potential mental health resource for students. This study utilizes the theory of planned behavior to investigate the relationship between students' attitudes, injunctive and descriptive norms, perceived behavioral control, and their intentions to engage their instructors in mental health conversations. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 311 undergraduate students at a small, private university in Southern California. METHODS: Participants were recruited through a Communication subject pool and completed an online survey about engaging instructors in these conversations. RESULTS: Results of a regression analysis indicate that all theoretical constructs positively predict students' intentions to discuss mental health with an instructor. CONCLUSIONS: By providing insight into students' intentions to utilize instructors as mental health resources on campus, these findings yield practical implications for better preparing universities and their faculty to engage in students' mental health.

Promoting Convergence Between Health Literacy and Health Communication.

Health communication and health literacy are complementary areas of study and application. However, the important connections between the work conducted in these two related areas of inquiry do not appear to have always been well understood, nor appreciated, leading to limited integration and coordination between health communication and health literacy inquiry. Part of the problem may be that these two related areas developed from different professional trajectories, with health communication developing primarily from a social science orientation, and health literacy emerging primarily from a health professional application perspective. While health literacy grew out of the professional disciplines of medicine and education, health communication was undergirded by communication and social science research. Due to these different initial starting points, a lack of understanding has grown between these two areas of inquiry, resulting in a lack of appreciation for how well these fields fit together and how they can be mutually supportive in both research and applications. While there are many scholars who study both health communication and health literacy, some researchers are not well-versed in both areas, and do not understand how they can contribute to one another. In this chapter, the authors examine the parallel development of these two interdependent areas of study, trace their inter-connections, and propose strategies to enhance collaboration and integration within health literacy as well as health communication research and applications.

College Students' Intent to Intervene when a Peer is Engaging in Nonmedical Use of Prescription Stimulants: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior.

BACKGROUND: This study examined college students' communication surrounding nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NPS). OBJECTIVE: Using a hypothetical scenario, the researchers employed the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to investigate the relationship of students' attitudes, perceived subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control with their intent to intervene on behalf of a friend who is engaging in NPS. METHODS: College students (N = 163) at a small, Southwestern university in the United States completed anonymous web- based surveys, reporting on their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention in the Spring of 2015. Self-reports of perceived knowledge of prescription stimulants were also collected as a control variable. RESULTS: Results of structural equation modeling support the utility of TPB in this context; participants' attitudes and subjective norms were significant predictors of behavioral intent. Perceived behavioral control was not a significant predictor. Conclusions and Importance: Based on these findings, several recommendations are offered for both researchers and practitioners who might consider a bystander intervention to address the growing NPS epidemic on college campuses.

Educating young men about testicular cancer: support for a comprehensive testicular cancer campaign.

Despite the prevalence of testicular cancer among men 15-39 years of age, little has been done to increase awareness of this disease or educate males about its prevention. To fill this gap, the Standard Model of Health Communication was incorporated to design and implement a comprehensive testicular cancer campaign among male college students. To test the effectiveness of these messages, college students (N = 220) completed measures before and after the campaign. In addition, the authors obtained a control group of male college students (N = 52) who were not exposed to the messages. Survey items assessed awareness of testicular cancer and behaviors related to testicular cancer. Participants' knowledge of testicular cancer and likelihood of conducting a testicular self-exam increased significantly after being exposed to the campaign information. Men who were exposed to testicular cancer messages were more knowledgeable about testicular cancer and were more likely to conduct testicular self-examinations than were men in the control group.

The role of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertisements and individual differences in getting people to talk to physicians.

In this study, 384 respondents provided quantitative and descriptive information about direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertisements and factors related to message reception and drug adoption. The authors applied M. Booth-Butterfield's ( 2008 ) Standard Model to explain how DTC advertising is used in getting individuals to talk to their doctors about pharmaceutical drugs. The researchers predicted that individuals who talked with their physicians about a pharmaceutical drug (referred to as talkers) would differ from those who did not talk with their physicians (referred to as nontalkers) in a number of meaningful ways. Findings from this data set indicate that individuals who talked with their physician about a specific medication were more likely to be female, older, higher in need for cognition, and reported higher physician satisfaction. Total number of channels (TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, and the Internet) was negatively associated with talking to a physician about a specific medication, as was exposure to DTC advertisement on television. The authors offer explanations for these findings along with descriptive accounts of how talkers and nontalkers differed in their recall of DTC advertisement information.