Executive Summary
With more than two million teens affected, adolescents are the most at-risk group for unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. However, parents, who teens cite as their most influential resource for making decisions about premarital sex, receive little consideration from federal initiatives. Thus, promoting more active parenting to parents to reduce risky behavior among teenagers seems like an appropriate strategy.
This study examines parents’ reactions to messages that stimulate fear of the consequences of risky adolescent sexual behavior. The goal of this research is to motivate parents to communicate with their children about sex and to participate in abstinence education programs.
Parents were identified as being either more or less “warm” (i.e., more or less concerned about children’s interactions with the marketplace). Respondents were then exposed to television public service announcements (PSAs) in which the level of threat was varied; specifically, more threatening PSAs delineated consequences of risky behavior (e.g., sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies), whereas nonthreatening messages did not include such content.
The results indicate that warmer parents are more likely to intend to communicate with children about sex and have a more favorable attitude toward PSAs that are clear about the consequences of teens engaging in sex. The findings have implications for how public policy officials and agencies might influence parents as key socialization agents in efforts to prevent adolescents from engaging in risky sexual behavior. For example, threatening messages seem to affect initiation of parental participation in such efforts, particularly if the parent is actively and normally engaged in communicating with his or her children. However, a high threat level does not seem to be required to affect all parental objectives that might be pertinent to these efforts. As the search continues for message components that may encourage parental participation in influencing children about the consequences of being sexually active, these results hold promise for ascertaining what that mix may actually entail.
Biography
John F. Tanner Jr. (PhD, University of Georgia) is Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research at Baylor University. His research interests include social marketing promotion and strategy. He has published in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and Psychology Reports. Dr. Tanner has served as an advisor on several expert panels for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Adolescent and Family Life Office and Office of Population Affairs.
Les Carlson is Nathan J. Gold Professor of Marketing at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His research interests center on consumer socialization and environmental advertising and the public policy implications of both of these research themes. He has published in Journal of Advertising, Advances in International Marketing, International Marketing Review, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, and Marketing Theory. He is the immediate past president of the American Academy of Advertising and is a former editor of Journal of Advertising.
Mary Anne Raymond (PhD, University of Georgia) is Professor of Marketing at Clemson University. Her primary research interests focus on risky adolescent behavior, social marketing strategies, and strategic marketing management in both domestic and international markets. Her recent research has been published in Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Consumer Affairs, International Marketing Review, Marketing Theory, Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, and Journal of Marketing Education. Previously, she was an invited Fulbright Professor of Marketing at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea.
Christopher D. Hopkins (PhD, Mississippi State University) is Associate Professor of Marketing at Clemson University. His research interests include public policy issues associated with advertising message content, Internet marketing, and scale development. He has published in Journal of Advertising, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and Marketing Theory, among others. He serves on several editorial review boards and is an active member of numerous professional associations, including the American Marketing Association, the Society for Marketing Advances, and the Market Management Association.
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Volume 27, Number 2, Fall 2008
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