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The influence of a humorous intervention on parent-child sexual communication

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The influence of a humorous intervention on parent-child sexual communication

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HUMOR
AND
PARENT-‐CHILD
SEXUAL
COMMUNICATION

THE INFLUENCE OF A HUMOROUS INTERVENTION ON PARENT-CHILD
SEXUAL COMMUNICATION

By

Katrina Louise Pariera

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(COMMUNICATION)

August 2014

Copyright 2014 Katrina Louise Pariera

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Acknowledgements
Although writing this dissertation has largely been a solitary work, it would not
have been possible without the support and guidance of many people that I have been
fortunate to have on my team. First and foremost I would like to thank Dr. Sheila
Murphy for the unwavering guidance, support, teaching, encouragement, feedback, and
mentorship that she has given me for the last four years. I could not have asked for a
better mentor, and I owe her infinite thanks for the scholar she continues to help me
become.
I am also indebted to Dr. Michael Cody. His enthusiastic support has been
invaluable and his emphasis on camaraderie has helped make my PhD journey a great
experience. Dr. Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati is also deserving of my immense
gratitude, as she has provided me with encouragement, enthusiasm, inspiration, and
insight into the way I approach research. She has been a role model and I hope to try to
emulate her in the years to come.
Many other professors have been especially helpful in the dissertation process.
Drs. Larry Gross and Lynn Miller helped me shape the ideas that would later come to
fruition here, and Dr. Miller has been especially patient in teaching me many of the
methods used in this study. I also give special thanks to Anne Marie Campian. I am not
sure that I could have navigated my way successfully without her wealth of knowledge,
patience, and willingness to answer hundreds of questions. The entire staff at Annenberg
deserves my vast gratitude for everything they have done and continue to do.
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I want to also give thanks to the participants in my study. Over 400 mothers of
adolescents took time out of their day to participate in my study. Without their
contributions, this dissertation would not exist.
I am also fortunate to have colleagues who have supported me, helped me de-
stress, and reminded me why I love doing this work. Although they are too numerous to
all mention by name, Evan Brody, Brittany Farr, and Lee Ann Sangalang are owed
special thanks for letting me practice talking about this research, and making me think it
might be a little bit interesting.
I also thank my family and friends for their support, not just throughout my
dissertation, but also throughout my entire education, starting from my first community
college creative writing class over ten years ago. I am sorry for skipping out on get-
togethers so I could work, acting very stressed and anxious, and occasionally crying
about statistics. Thank you all for putting up with me. Finally, thank you, Charley, for
every single thing you’ve ever done.
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Table of Contents
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... v
List of Figures.................................................................................................................... vi
Abbreviations.................................................................................................................... vii
Abstract............................................................................................................................ viii
Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1
Chapter Two: Theoretical Approach .................................................................................. 7
Parent-Child Sexual Communication ............................................................................. 7
The Theory of Planned Behavior.................................................................................. 11
Emotion and Tone......................................................................................................... 17
Outcome Expectations .................................................................................................. 29
Chapter Three: Methods ................................................................................................... 31
Sampling Procedure...................................................................................................... 31
Sample Characteristics.................................................................................................. 32
Stimulus Materials ........................................................................................................ 33
Procedures..................................................................................................................... 37
Pilot Testing.................................................................................................................. 38
Measures, Reliability, and Validity .............................................................................. 38
Chapter Four: Results ....................................................................................................... 46
Descriptive Statistics..................................................................................................... 46
Analyses of Research Questions................................................................................... 54
Other Post-hoc Analyses............................................................................................... 61
Chapter Five: Discussion and Conclusion ........................................................................ 65
Discussion of Findings.................................................................................................. 65
Limitations .................................................................................................................... 77
Ideas For Future Research ............................................................................................ 79
Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 85
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 87
Appendix A: Survey Instrument ..................................................................................... 113

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List of Tables

Table 4.1. Means and Standard Deviations for Variables of Interest. 47

Table 4.2 Means and Standard Deviations for Reactions to Both PSAs. 48

Table 4.3. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Predictors of
PCSC Intentions in the next 12 months.
49

Table 4.4. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Predictors of
PCSC Intentions in the next 7 days.
51

Table 4.5. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Amusement as
Predictor of PCSC Intentions (Humor Condition Only).
55

Table 4.6. Differences Between High and Low Amusement on Norms,
Attitudes, and Self- Efficacy.
56

Table 4.7. Parents Outcome Expectations From PCSC, By Child’s
Gender.
60

Table 4.8 Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Predictors of
PCSC Intentions in the next 12 months (Full Model).
62

Table 4.9. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Predictors of
PCSC Intentions in the next 7 days (Full Model).
63

Table 4.10. Differences Between Parents Who Have And Have Not Talked
To Their Child About Sex.
64

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List of Figures

Figure 3.1. Screenshots of Humorous PSA 34

Figure 3.2. Screenshots of Non-Humorous PSA 35

Figure 3.3. Screenshot of Informational Website 41

Figure 4.1. Perceptions of PSAs Between Conditions 53

Figure 4.2. Perceptions of Humorous PSA, By Amusement 53
Figure 4.3. Parents’ Expected Outcomes From PCSC 58
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Abbreviations

ANOVA Analysis of Variance
ANCOVA Analysis of Covariance
MANOVA Multiple Analysis of Variance
PCSC Parent-Child Sexual Communication
PSA Public Service Announcement
STD Sexually Transmitted Disease
STI Sexually Transmitted Infection
TPB Theory of Planned Behavior
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Abstract

Parent-child sexual communication (PCSC) has been consistently linked to positive
sexual health outcomes for the child. Most parents do talk to their children about sex, but
these conversations are infrequent, and often highly uncomfortable. Though many
studies have looked at the outcomes of parent-child sexual communication (PCSC), there
are few media interventions designed to increase PCSC. This research examines the
impact of a public service announcement designed to increase parents’ information-
seeking and intentions to talk to their children about sex (N = 442). Guided by the
Theory of Planned Behavior, the study tests the effect of the tone of the public service
announcement (humorous vs. non-humorous) and the parent’s self-reported emotional
reaction (level of amusement) on attitudes, injunctive norm perceptions, self-efficacy,
intentions to talk to one’s child about sex, and information-seeking intentions and
behaviors. Parents’ expectations regarding PCSC are also explored, as well as how these
expectations vary between sons and daughters. Results reveal that tone has little to no
effect on PCSC intentions, attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy, but within the humor
condition, amusement is positively associated with PCSC intentions, self-efficacy, and
norms. Being exposed to a humorous stimulus leads to different reactions based on the
extent to which the person is actually amused, rather than their exposure to a humorous
PSA alone. Results also suggest that parents have moderate outcome expectations
associated with PCSC, and are largely unaware of the impact they are likely to have on
their child. Results are discussed in light of implications for understanding the effect of
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humor and amusement on parent-child sexual communication, and how these can be
harnessed to improve and increase parent-child sexual communication.

Keywords: health communication, parent-child sexual communication, emotion, humor,
tone, amusement, PSA, Theory of Planned Behavior
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Chapter One: Introduction

The way we talk about sex is inextricably linked to our knowledge, attitudes,
relationships and ultimately our own health and well being. While most sexual health
campaigns and interventions aim to prevent sexually transmitted infections or diseases
(STIs or STDs) or unplanned pregnancy, there has been an increased recognition in the
value of promoting positive social and emotional outcomes as well. In recent years,
researchers have begun invoking notions of openness and respect as important aspects of
sexual well-being (Wellings, Collumbien, Slaymaker, Singh, et al., 2006, p. 1706).
Organizations like the World Health Organization have attempted to redefine sexual
health in a way that focuses not just on the absence of disease, but on social well-being
(World Health Organization, 2002). Addressing the social, interpersonal dimension of
sexual health can contribute to the promotion of better sexual health outcomes, such as
reductions in STIs and unplanned pregnancies, but improving the social and emotional
aspects of sex is also an important outcome in its own right. Parent-child communication
about sexuality is one major way to address these issues. This dissertation seeks to test
the effect of a media intervention designed to encourage parents to talk to their children
about sex.
Both physical and social-emotional sexual health outcomes for people in the
United States are often poor, especially for young people. About one third of people
report having some kind of sexual dysfunction (Nicolosi et al., 2004). Many teens,
especially females, feel regret and shame about intercourse (Deardorff, Tschann, Flores,
& Ozer, 2010). About one fifth of young people report feeling a lack of emotional
satisfaction related to sexuality (Higgins, Mullinax, Trussell, Davidson, & Moore, 2011).
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Each year in the United States there are 19 million new cases of STIs, half of them
among young adults (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). Unplanned
pregnancy is also common in the United States. About half of all pregnancies are
unplanned (National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 2012), and
women who decide to carry an unplanned pregnancy to term are less likely to get
adequate prenatal care, and their children are more likely to have health problems. Half
of unplanned pregnancies happen to women in their 20s and another twenty percent
occurs among teens. Of all teen pregnancies, 82% are unplanned (Finer & Zolna, 2011).
There are many ways to improve sexual health in the United States. On one end
of the spectrum are policy-level changes, such as increased availability of contraceptive
options for young people (Hartocollis, 2012), and more support for comprehensive sex
education (SIECUS, 2007). On the other end of the spectrum are the private,
interpersonal interactions between individuals, such as those between parents and
children. Parent-child communication about sexuality has been consistently linked to
positive sexual health outcomes for the child. Adolescents whose parents talk to them
about sex are more likely to initiate sex at a later age and to use contraception when they
do have sex (Aspy et al., 2007; Hadley et al., 2008; Malcolm et al., 2012). More positive
emotional outcomes may likewise be associated increased parent-child conversations
about sex. For example, (Thompson, 1990) found that young women who reported
having comfortable and open sexual communication with their mothers were more likely
to describe their first sexual intercourse as pleasurable..
Despite these positive potential outcomes, parent-child sexual communication
(PCSC) is often a missed opportunity. Although most parents do talk to their children
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about sex at some point (SIECUS, 2011) parents tend to avoid in-depth or frequent sexual
communication with their offspring, instead perceiving their children as asexual and
naïve even into adulthood (Elliott, 2012). In fact, sexual communication between parents
and children is usually seen by parents as a highly uncomfortable and rare exchange in
which neither party wants to participate (Beazley & Brock, 1995; Elliott, 2012). Because
of these misperceptions, it is crucial to understand the role of parent’s attitudes,
perceptions about what is “normal” regarding this communication, and beliefs that they
can be successful in talking to their child about sex. Moreover, since parent-child sexual
communication is potentially uncomfortable, it is critical to understand how interventions
can harness different, hopefully positive, emotional responses. For example, it may be
that a humorous intervention would defuse what many parents and their children consider
an extremely embarrassing topic. But it is also possible that serious messages have a
more powerful effect on motivating parents to talk to their children. This dissertation
compares a humorous and non-humorous intervention on these outcomes as well as
information-seeking behavior.
Understanding how to design messages that increase both the frequency and
efficacy of parent-child sexual communication is a crucial next step for ameliorating
negative sexual health outcomes for young people. But although many studies have
examined the relationship between parent-child communication and sexual health
outcomes, too few studies have used interventions to encourage parent-child
communication, and fewer still have looked at the respective roles tone, specifically
humor, and the emotional response to that tone plays in encouraging communication by
bolstering parents’ attitudes, norm perceptions, and perceived self-efficacy with regards
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to PCSC, and ultimately their intentions to communicate with their child about sexual
health. The results from this dissertation have significant implications for finding ways
to increase the frequency and comfort of parent-child sexual communication, and
decrease shame and silence about sex.
Chapter Summaries
Chapter Two: Theoretical Approach. Chapter Two begins with an overview of
sexual communication between parents and children, first discussing past research on the
influence of PCSC and past PCSC interventions. This is followed by an overview of the
Theory of Planned Behavior and how this model will guide the research. Because
attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy are the key variables of the Theory of Planned
Behavior, each of these concepts will be reviewed in turn. The concept of perceived
behavior control, or self-efficacy, and its known role in parent-child sexual
communication is discussed first. For attitudes, past research on parents’ attitudes
specific to PCSC is discussed. For social norms, injunctive norms are explained,
followed by a discussion of the lack of research on the role of norms and PCSC. The
next section is on the persuasive influence of emotion and tone. These two concepts are
distinguished and past research is summarized, with special attention paid to cultural
variations in the effect of humor. The gaps in this research with regards to PCSC are also
pointed out. The case is made that emotion and tone could have a differing persuasive
influence on how parents perceive PCSC. By articulating the connections between the
Theory of Planned Behavior and emotion and tone, the importance of the research is
established, both in terms of theoretical implications and in developing effective
interventions to reach parents and encourage more conversations about sexuality. The
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chapter concludes with a discussion of information-seeking and outcome expectations.
The proposed hypotheses and research questions are included throughout the chapter,
where appropriate.
Chapter Three: Methods. This chapter provides a detailed overview of the
methods of the study. The sampling procedure of the study is described including
recruitment, inclusions criteria, and informed consent. This is followed by a description
of the stimulus material used for the experiment. The chapter also includes a detailed
description of the final study sample, including demographic variables. The study
protocol, pilot-testing, and cognitive interviewing are then detailed. Details are included
about how each scale was developed, along with the complete set of questions for each
measure along with information about reliability and factor analysis of all the key scales.
Chapter Four: Results. The results section begins with descriptive information
about the variables measured in the study, which is followed by regression, t-test,
correlation, and MANOVA results answering each of the hypotheses and research
questions. Appropriate tables and figures are provided to supplement the description of
the results. In the course of analysis, some additional questions arise that are analyzed at
the end of this chapter.
Chapter Five: Discussion and Conclusion. The final chapter begins with a
discussion of the findings from Chapter Four. This includes a discussion of the
theoretical implication of the findings, for example, whether the Theory of Planned
Behavior was able to accurately predict parents’ intentions to talk to their child about sex,
and the effect of tone and emotion on key variables. The discussion covers practical
implications from the findings, including how future campaigns should be designed to
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reach parents and encourage PCSC. Following this is a discussion of the major
limitations of the study, including lack of a representative sample, some weaknesses in
the experimental design, and the absence of the child’s perspective. Future steps for this
line of research are also discussed. The final part of the chapter will include a conclusion
about how the research can contribute to the larger body of knowledge, and what future
directions campaign designers might take to increase PCSC.
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Chapter Two: Theoretical Approach

Parent-Child Sexual Communication
Parents are typically a person’s first source of information about sexuality and can
be one of their most influential sources. Parental communication with children is a
cornerstone of sexual development and can have profound effects throughout their
lifespan on their sexual health and attitudes. Research over the past four decades has
found that conversations between parents and their children often have a positive impact
on young people’s sexual behaviors. Youth whose parents talk to them about sex are less
likely to be sexually active, (Aspy et al., 2007; Guzmán et al., 2003), more likely to delay
sexual initiation (DiIorio, Kelley, & Hockenberry-Eaton, 1999; Karofsky, Zeng, &
Kosorok, 2001; Lehr, DiIorio, Dudley, & Lipana, 2000; Leland & Barth, 1993; Pick &
Palos, 1995a), more likely to use birth control and condoms (Aspy et al., 2007; Atienzo,
Walker, Campero, Lamadrid-Figueroa, & Gutiérrez, 2009; Hadley et al., 2008;
Handelsman, Cabral, & Weisfeld, 1987; Holtzman & Rubinson, 1995; Jaccard, Dittus, &
Gordon, 1996; Kotva, H.J. & Schneider, 1990; Malcolm et al., 2012; Pick & Palos,
1995a) more knowledgeable about AIDS (Lefkowitz, Romo, Corona, Au, & Sigman,
2000), have higher sexual self-esteem (Riggio, Galaz, & Garcia, 2014), and are more
likely to utilize sexual and reproductive health care services (Hall, Moreau, & Trussell,
2012).
Children who discuss sex more with their parents than they do with their friends
are more likely to have cautious sexual attitudes and to delay intercourse (DiIorio,
Kelley, and Hockenberry-Eaton, 1999). Daughters whose mothers are comfortable and
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open about sexuality are more likely to report their first sexual encounter as pleasurable
rather than remorseful (Thompson, 1990). There is also evidence that the beneficial
relationship between PCSC and sexual health outcomes are not specific to the U.S. nor to
western culture (Atienzo, Walker, Campero, Lamadrid-Figueroa, & Gutiérrez, 2009; de
Looze, Constantine, Jerman, Vermeulen-Smit, & Bogt, 2014; Pick & Palos, 1995a;
Zhang, Shah, Stanton, Baldwin, & Li, 2007), though the specifics of the communicative
behaviors themselves (such as age when parents intend to discuss sexual issues) may vary
between cultures (El-Shaieb & Wurtele, 2009). Moreover, the positive effects associated
with PCSC have not been found to be heavily moderated by socio-economic factors, race,
or ethnicity (Fox & Inazu, 1980; Pluhar, DiIorio, & McCarty, 2008; Romer et al., 1999;
Sly et al., 1995). Although a small number of studies have failed to find a link between
PCSC and youth sexual outcomes (see Furstenberg, Herceg-Baron, Shea, & Webb, 1984;
Newcomer & Udry, 1985), a comprehensive review of the literature by DiIorio, Pluhar,
& Belcher in 2003 concluded that PCSC is consistently correlated with positive sexual
health outcomes for youth.
Parental communication about sex tends to be more beneficial if it takes place
before the young person has initiated intercourse (Atienzo et al., 2009), but much of the
communication may take place after sexual behaviors have been initiated (Beckett et al.,
2010). The vast majority of parents do talk to their children about sex at some point
(82%), though these conversations are infrequent and some topics, like using condoms,
are discussed to a lesser degree (60% of parents) (Center for Latino Adolescent and
Family Health, 2011). According to the review by DiIorio and colleagues, past studies
have shown that the topics parents discuss include menstruation, pregnancy, birth, dating
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and relationships, birth control, STDs, intercourse, condoms, wet dreams/erections,
resisting sexual pressure, sexual abuse, and sexual values. Reports about the frequency
of conversations about these topics vary greatly between mothers, fathers, sons, and
daughters. For example, Downie and Coates (1999) found that parents discuss sexual
exploration with their sons, but protective issues with their daughters. O’Sullivan,
Meyer-Bahlburg, and Watkins (2001) also found that parents tend to emphasize
avoidance and limit setting when talking to their daughters about sex. The frequency of
PCSC has also decreased in the last couple of decades (Robert & Sonenstein, 2010).
Although the cause of this decline is not clear, researchers suggest that the increase of
abstinence-only sex education programs may have inhibited young people’s initiation of
conversations about these topics.
Despite concerns to the contrary, young people do not perceive sexual
communication from parents as permission to have sex (Kotva & Schneider, 1990), and
in fact, often want their parents to talk to them more about sex. Byers, Sears, and Weaver
(2008) found that most people feel their parents should have talked to them more about
sex. A study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
(2002) found that the vast majority of teens feel they would benefit from more open
sexual communication with their parents, and in another study in progress (Pariera, in
progress), 85% of young adults strongly agree that it is important for parents to talk to
their children about sex, while fewer than 3% strongly disagree.
Despite these compelling findings, there have been relatively few interventions
aimed at parent-child communication about sex. O’Donnell and colleagues (2005) found
that listening to audio stories about families talking about sex increased parents’ self-
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efficacy and subsequent conversations with their children. They also found higher family
support reported by youths whose families listened to the audiotapes than youths in a
control group. In a subsequent study, O'Donnell and colleagues (2010), found that
listening to audio stories of families talking about sex not only increased parents’ self-
efficacy in talking to their own children but also decreased adolescent risk-taking for both
sexual (kissing and petting) and drinking behaviors. Another intervention (Campero,
Walker, Atienzo, & Gutierrez, 2010) found that simple awareness-raising can promote
positive outcomes for children. Parents who were made aware of the sexual risks their
children face were more inclined to talk to them about sex than parents who were not
aware.
A review of interventions targeted at improving and increasing parent-child
communication about sex found only 12 studies over the last 20 years (Akers, Holland, &
Bost, 2011). The lack of interventions is surprising as evidence mounts that parents can
impact their child’s sexual health. As one scholar puts it, to not include family
communication in interventions and sex education programs “…is to ignore a
fundamental fact of life” (Warren, 1992, p. 129). These past interventions have been
successful at increasing parents’ frequency, quality, comfort, and self-efficacy in talking
to their children about sex. As Aker and colleagues note, parents’ attitudes or expected
outcomes are rarely measured and are deserving of more attention. Wight and Fullerton
(2013) reviewed 44 parental involvement interventions, some of which targeted PCSC,
and pointed out that the most effective campaigns were those that involved at least 14
hours of parental training. These PCSC interventions are effective, but require a
substantial investment time from parents and facilitators.
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Media campaigns can help overcome this time-commitment barrier. One of the
only national media campaigns encouraging PCSC, Parents Speak Up National
Campaign, was found to reach a large audience, increase the frequency of PCSC, and
delay youths’ sexual initiation (Davis, Evans, & Kamyab, 2013). Thus, while in-depth,
training-based interventions may be particularly effective in helping parents develop
communication skills, media interventions may be a less time-consuming approach for
encouraging PCSC. This dissertation tests the effect of a brief media intervention on
parents’ intentions to talk to their child about sex.
The Theory of Planned Behavior
In designing an intervention aimed at increasing communication behaviors, the
Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1987, 1991) provides guidelines for predicting
behavioral change. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) posits that behavior is
directly related to and resulting from intention to perform that specific behavior. The
stronger the intention to perform a behavior, the more likely the person is to perform that
specific behavior, as long as it is under their volitional control. There are three major
predictors of behavioral intention: attitudes, injunctive norms, and perceived behavioral
control, or self-efficacy. While actual behavioral control is obviously important (whether
or not a person has the necessary resources to do something) perceived behavioral control
refers to the extent to which an individual feels capable of performing the specific
behavior in question.
Perceived behavioral control, or self-efficacy (see Bandura, 1977, 1982), varies
from situation to situation. Self-efficacy is the extent to which one feels they can do
something, or “judgments of how well one can execute courses of action required to deal
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with prospective situations” (Bandura, 1982, p. 122). These self-appraisals determine
how much effort one can and will expend in performing an activity. The more self-
efficacy, the more someone will persist at trying to perform the task. Bandura posits that
the level of self-efficacy a person has is effected by past performance accomplishments,
vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. Physiological states
refer to emotional arousal. Bandura argues that judgments of anxiety and stress debilitate
one’s performance of a task. Desensitization and other attempts at decreasing anxiety,
such as modeling the behavior, then increase self-efficacy. Self-efficacy has been widely
demonstrated to be an essential predictor of behavior for several decades. Several meta-
analyses have been conducted on various behavioral outcomes and all have found self-
efficacy to be predictive of intentional or actual behavior, including condom use (Casey,
Timmermann, Allen, Krahn, & Turkiewicz, 2009), smoking cessation (Gwaltney, Metrik,
Kahler, & Shiffman, 2009), development of depression in patients with chronic pain
(Arnstein, Caudill, Mandle, Norris, & Beasley, 1999), and health outcomes in general
(Holden, 1992). One’s self-efficacy can also affect their ability to communicate
effectively. Women with breast cancer are more likely to report a higher quality of life if
they have high self-efficacy in communicating about their symptoms (Edmond et al.,
2013). Young men with higher self-efficacy in communicating with their parents are
more likely to use condoms, and both men and women who have high self-efficacy in
communicating with their peers are more likely to have positive attitudes about condoms,
and more likely to use condoms (Halpern-Felsher, Kropp, Boyer, Tschann, & Ellen,
2004). Women with higher self-efficacy in communicating with their partner are more
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likely to use vaginal microbicides, which may protect against sexually transmitted
infection (Fava et al., 2013).
Self-efficacy has also been proven to be a key variable in PCSC, in that parents
with higher self-efficacy are more likely to talk to their children about sex (DiIorio,
Dudley, Lehr, & Soet, 2000; Pluhar et al., 2008). Mothers’ confidence in talking to their
children about sex was one of the biggest predictors of PCSC in a study of 1,066 African-
American dyads (Miller et al., 2007), even controlling for education and income. Self-
efficacy and comfort were also predictors in Pluhar and colleagues' 2008 study, while
parents’ age and socio-economic status were not. Ogle, Glasier, and Riley (2008) found
that most parents in their study were either comfortable or very comfortable with PCSC,
particularly when talking with their children about boyfriends and girlfriends, but least so
when talking to them about sexual intercourse. Because parents’ self-efficacy in
communicating about sex may vary by topic, this dissertation measures the frequency of
communication about a variety of topics ranging from those that parents are more likely
to feel efficacious about, such as relationships, to those that parents may feel less
efficacious about, such as STIs.
According to the TPB, another predictor of intention is attitude. Attitude refers to
the appraisal of the behavior, and in general a more favorable attitude will lead to a
greater intention to perform the behavior. Attitudes are often the target of campaigns and
interventions because changing attitudes about a behavior, such as increasing the positive
values associated with it, may affect intentions to perform that behavior. Parental
attitudes regarding PCSC are mixed. Elliott (2010) found that one of the major barriers
to PCSC was parental embarrassment and discomfort. Embarrassment and fear were also
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major barriers reported by mothers in Jaccard, Dittus, and Gordon's (2000) study. Jerman
and Constantine (2010) found that two thirds of a nationally representative sample
reported communication difficulties with PCSC, including embarrassment. But while
discomfort is commonly reported, and one might assume that most parents dread talking
to their children about sex, some studies have found that parents also have positive
attitudes about PCSC. Heisler's study (2005) found that mothers and fathers report being
satisfied overall with sexual communication with their children, and Byers et al. (2008)
found that parents felt they did a good job talking to their kids about sex.
According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, the third predictor of behavioral
intent is injunctive norms. Injunctive norms are about what people think is right, and
how people should act. The Theory of Planned Behavior and the related Integrative
Model of Behavioral Prediction have demonstrated that injunctive norms – the perceived
social pressure to perform or not perform a behavior – are major predictors of behavioral
intentions (Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein, 2000). Injunctive norms are highly associated with a
number of health outcomes, including drinking behavior among college students (LaBrie,
Hummer, Neighbors, & Larimer, 2010), gambling activity (Neighbors et al., 2007), and
smoking (Zaleski & Aloise-Young, 2013).
Injunctive norms have been successfully targeted in prior interventions. Reid and
Aiken (2013) developed a randomized control targeting injunctive norms, which was
found to successfully increase sun protection intentions and behaviors. Another
intervention targeting injunctive norms found that they had a strong influence on social
behaviors in alcohol contexts (i.e. telling their friends to stop drinking or not to drive if
drunk), and these effects endured four weeks later (Mollen, Rimal, Ruiter, Jang, & Kok,
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2013). Klein and Boster (2008) also successfully manipulated injunctive norms to change
attitudes about drinking behaviors. Researchers have also found that injunctive norms can
be targeted to increase actual fruit consumption among adolescents (Stok, de Ridder, de
Vet, & de Wit, 2014), smoking (Lee & Paek, 2013) off-trail hiking (Winter, 2006), and
intention to feed one’s child healthy foods (Lewis, 2011).
Thus understanding parents’ norm perceptions about PCSC is a critical area of
research because of the strong influence on intentions and behaviors that norms have
been found to have. If a campaign can alter the public’s perception about what is
“normative,” for instance that most parents approve of and engage in PCSC it may, in
turn, increase parents’ intent to converse with their own children about sex. It is still not
clear, however, to what degree norms affect parents’ communication with their children.
This dissertation will examine parents’ injunctive norms perceptions about parent-child
sexual communication as well as its effects on their intentions to converse with their
children about sex.
While perceived behavioral control, attitudes, and injunctive norms can strongly
predict intention and action (Ajzen, 1991) it is vital to measure precisely the behavior in
question. For instance, if one wants to understand the likelihood of a person talking to
their child about contraception, then assessing the intention to talk to their child in
general, or even to talk to their child about sex in general, will not necessarily be
predictive. Ajzen also emphasizes that in some cases only one predictor of intention will
have a significant impact, while other cases may be impacted by a combination of
perceived behavioral control, attitudes, and injunctive norms. In designing interventions
it is critical to understand how these three factors predict intentions, and then focus on
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changing the factors that have the most influence. For example, a 2005 study using the
TPB to predict mammography intention found that all three factors predicted intentions to
get a mammogram, but perceived behavioral control was the strongest predictor (Steele
& Porche, 2005). They conclude that mammography interventions need to focus
primarily on perceived behavioral control, but also include attitude and injunctive norms.
Because this model has not been run on parent-child sexual communication it is not clear
if and how these predictors should be targeted in interventions aimed at increasing
parents’ intentions to talk to their children about sex.
The TPB has been shown to predict a variety of behaviors and explain a large
percentage of variance in intentions and behaviors (Sutton, 1998). A review of research
applying the TPB to health behaviors found that the average variance explained was 41%
for intentions and 34% for behaviors (Godin & Kok, 1996). Attitudes and perceived
behavioral control or self-efficacy were the biggest predictors of intention. The TPB has
predicted health behaviors including getting a mammogram, exercising, brushing teeth,
and using condoms, to name a few. The Theory of Planned Behavior provides a useful
framework for understanding how to raise intentions for parents to talk to their children
about sex. To date, this model has not been used to predict parents’ intentions to talk to
their children about sex, and subsequently little is known about how attitudes, norms, and
self-efficacy play a role. Based on past research the following hypothesis is proposed:

H
1
: Attitudes (H
1a
), injunctive norms (H
1b
), and self-efficacy (H
1c
), will predict
intentions to talk to one’s child about sex.
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Emotion and Tone
Emotion. In addition to addressing attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy with regard
to PCSC, it is helpful to explore how emotions and tone in interventions can also affect
PCSC. Attitudes are not formed only by rational decision-making and, in fact, scholars
now largely agree that emotional and rational decision-making go hand in hand. Emotion
is of particular interest because emotions are linked to action tendencies, such as
withdrawal or engagement, increased or decreased processing, and ultimately changes in
attitudes, beliefs and behaviors (Eisend, 2009; Frijda, Kuipers, & ter Schure, 1989;
Strick, van Baaren, Holland, & van Knippenberg, 2009). Emotional appeals can be
highly persuasive (Arnold, 1985; DeSteno, Petty, Rucker, Wegener, & Braverman, 2004;
Dillard & Nabi, 2006; Murphy, Frank, Chatterjee, & Baezconde-Garbanati, 2013;
Murphy, Frank, Moran, & Patnoe-Woodley, 2011), but under what conditions, and to
what extent emotion plays a role in motivating PCSC is not yet known.
A discussion of the role that emotion plays in persuasion should begin with an
explanation of some of the terms most often used in this research, namely emotion and
tone. Emotions are feelings, felt internally, sometimes expressed externally, and
functioning in a social and communicative domain (Andersen & Guerrero, 1998). Nabi
(2003, p. 226) defines them as “internal, mental states representing evaluative, valenced
reactions to events, agents, or objects that vary in intensity. They are generally short-
lived, intense, and directed at some external stimuli.” Guerrero, Andersen, & Trost
(1998) candidly explain that, like pornography, emotion may be difficult to define, but
one knows it when one feels it.
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Many scholars have posited that there is a core set of basic emotions that are
evolutionarily-based and universally recognized. Scholars are not in agreement about the
existence or exact number of basic emotions (Ekman, 1992a; Izard, 1992; Ortony &
Turner, 1990), but many would accept evidence for at least six: happiness, fear, surprise,
sadness, anger, and disgust/contempt (Fridlund, Ekman, & Oster, 1987). These emotions
are identified as unique or universal based on evidence that observers from a diverse
range of cultures agree in their assessment of facial expressions of these emotions
(Fridlund et al., 1987), and have consistent nervous system responses to these emotions
(Levenson, Ekman, & Friesen, 1990). The basic emotions also share common
characteristics, namely that they have rapid onset, automatic appraisal, and unbidden
occurrence (Ekman, 1992b).
Amusement is an emotional response that has eluded categorization. There are
two potential ways scholars might categorize emotion. First, it may be a variation of a
basic emotion. Scholars recognize that the basic emotions do not account for the entire
range of human emotional responses, but instead each can be seen as a family of related
states with many variations (Ekman, 1992a). Ekman argues, for example, that anger may
have dozens of expressions, based on the intensity, control, and provocation. If this is the
case, amusement may be a variation of happiness or surprise.
The second possibility is that it is a distinct emotion (universal or not). There is
some evidence that people recognize amusement as a distinct emotion (Keltner, 1995),
though this study was not cross-cultural. Some scholars might argue that amusement is
cognitively controlled and appraised (Giuliani, McRae, & Gross, 2008; Gross, Richards,
& John, 2006), suggesting a distinction from universal emotions, which are automatic.
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Izard suggests that basic emotions are a separate system from all other emotions
(including amusement and any number of other emotions), with the distinction being that
the former does not require cognition. Izard posits that the limitless array of human
emotional experiences can be explained as interactions between emotion and cognition,
or “an emotion…interacts with cognitive processes to form an affective-cognitive
structure-an associative network of feelings, images, appraisals, thoughts, and goals”
(Izard, 1992, p. 564). The universality (or lack of it) of amusement is not germane to this
dissertation, but it may become more important as interventions using humor are
developed for different cultural groups. For this dissertation Izard’s approach is taken and
it is assumed that amusement is an emotion – not a basic one, but one based on cognition.
Cognitive appraisals that may lead to amusement will be discussed in the section on
theories of humor.
Studying the effects of distinct emotions, such as amusement, is a crucial next
step in communication research. While studies of bifurcated emotions, for example
positive and negative, have been useful (Lang, Greenwald, Bradley, & Hamm, 1993;
Watson & Clark, 1992) some scholars argue this oversimplifies the possible range of
effects discrete emotions can have (DeSteno, Petty, Rucker, Wegener, & Braverman,
2004; DeSteno, Petty, Wegener, & Rucker, 2000; Nabi, 2003, 2010). Nabi (2010)
suggests that the most pressing issue in emotion research is the need for scholars to look
at discrete emotions more than broad affective valence. Nabi argues that examining
discrete emotions “is most useful, as what little might be lost in parsimony is more than
offset by the precision gained in prediction” (p. 153). This dissertation looks at the extent
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to which one discrete emotion, amusement, predicts parents’ attitudes, norms, self-
efficacy, and communication behaviors.
Tone. Related to emotions are tones, which describe the attributes of a message.
Tone relates to emotion in the sense that emotions can be expressed by tone and tone can
influence emotions. Though not every emotion has a corresponding tone, nor every tone
a corresponding emotion, tones could be considered cognates of emotion, or as Nabi calls
it “relational themes” (Nabi, 2002, p. 205). For example, the emotion of fear may be a
response to something with a scary tone, or the emotion of amusement may be a response
to a message with a humorous tone. In other words, people are exposed to a humorous
message (tone) and experience amusement (emotion). Research occasionally refers to
humor as an emotion, but it is more accurate to say that humor is a tone that may (or may
not) evoke the emotion of amusement.
Humor as tone. Much of the emotion research focuses on audience reactions to
humor. Humor is a way people related to each other, amuse themselves, cope, and make
light of uncomfortable situations. “Humor is a message sent by an individual or group
with psychological motivations, but this humor message is also dependent on the
interpretation by another individual or group” (Lynch, 2002, p. 430). There is evidence
that laughter as an expression of joy is experienced cross-culturally, and across species
(Matsusaka, 2004; Panksepp & Burgdorf, 2003; Panksepp, 2007; Sauter, 2007; Science
Daily, 2010).
Humor is fundamentally communicative, and functions both internally, that is
psychologically, and socially. The function of humor is often explained by one of three
major humor theories: superiority theory, relief theory and incongruity theory (see Lynch,
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2002 and Meyer, 2000, for overviews). Superiority theory is based on perceiving a
situation as proof that oneself is superior in some way (more mature, knowledgeable,
socially graceful, and etc.) than another. Superiority humor has been described as a form
of resistance, aggression, and control (Gruner, 1997). This might be exemplified in
humorous stimuli which makes fun of someone else, or otherwise makes the audience
feel that they are part of the in-group, laughing at the other person or people. Another
theory that attempts to explain the function of humor is tension theory. This describes the
function of humor as providing relief, saving face, and increasing trust. There is, in fact,
some physiological evidence that humor decreases stress and muscle tension (Fry, 1992).
Incongruity theory, on the other hand, posits that humor is a reflection of the capacity to
notice changes to patterns, or reflect surprise at the unexpected and incongruous.
Incongruity theory is often seen as explaining the function of humor as an intellectual
one, based on understanding of patterns and norms, and discrepancies to these.
Some scholars argue that one of these given theories may entirely explain the
function of humor, but other scholars propose that the three theories are not mutually
exclusive. Meyer (2000) suggests that each humor theory may be fitted to different
situations, meaning tension theory explains how humor works in tense situations,
incongruity theory explains how humor works in surprising situations, and superiority
theory explains how humor works in situations of criticism and unification. Similarly,
Lynch (2002) argues that these theories cannot provide one general theory, but can serve
as a frame for understanding the function of humor in a given situation, and taken
together can explain humor’s function. There has also been extensive research into the
social aspects of humor, or how people use humor to relate, build trust, build credibility,
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and etc., but because the humor used in the research here is experienced alone, (a
participants viewing a humorous/non-humorous stimuli, as opposed to communicating
humor with another person) this literature is not reviewed here. For purposes of this
dissertation, what is of interest is the effect humor has on those experiencing it.
Culture and humor. Before addressing the major findings about how humor
affects audiences, it is pertinent to address the cultural variability of what is considered
humorous. There is some evidence of universal aspects of humor, namely that
incongruity is a key feature of humor cross-culturally (Alden, Hoyer, & Lee, 1993),
suggesting that the underlying cognitive function of humor may be super-cultural.
However, exactly what is perceived as humorous varies across cultures (Unger, 1995),
which can be explained by the fact that humor often relies on shared knowledge and
language. Researchers have found that culturally congruent humor is more effective
(Zhang & Gelb, 1996), and that what works in some cultures does not work in others
(Lepkowska-White, Brashear, & Weinberger, 2003). Perception of humor can also vary
between cultures that are high or low in uncertainty avoidance. Cultures that are high in
uncertainty avoidance are those that usually have more formal rules for social
engagement, have weaker egos, and are less tolerant of dissent, while cultures that are
low in uncertainty avoidance have the reverse characteristics (Gudykunst & Lee, 2002).
Lee and Lim (2008) found that people high in uncertainty avoidance cultures were more
likely to enjoy humorous ads that have safe or resolved outcomes than people in low
uncertainty avoidance cultures. They found similar results among people in collectivist
cultures, that is, those that tend to value social harmony and restraint. Alden and
colleagues (1993) also found that cultures high in power distance, or those that are less
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egalitarian and more hierarchical, tend to produce more humorous ads that feature
characters of unequal status than cultures that are low in power distance. These findings
suggest that overall, humor is culture-specific, and that culturally tailored messages are
more likely to be effective and perceived as more humorous.
Although this study looks at only one broad cultural group (using ethnicity as a
proxy for culture in this case), it should be noted that part of the rationale behind this
study was to have it function as a pilot, with future studies looking at Latino and East
Asian cultures, because these groups are disproportionately affected by sexual health
issues. East Asian Americans have lower rates of most sexually transmitted infections
(STIs), but higher rates of cervical cancer and Hepatitis B than white Americans (CDC,
2012). Koreans receive very low numbers of cervical cancer screenings ( Lee, Eun, Lee,
& Nandy, 2012) and have twice the rate of cervical cancer as white women. Compared
to non-Hispanic whites, Latino Americans have higher rates of HIV, other STIs, teen
pregnancy, and cervical cancer, (CDC, 2004; Center for Latino Adolescent and Family
Health, n.d.). Neff and Crawford (1998) found that Mexican-Americans have lower
perceptions of the severity of HIV and lower perceived benefits to condom use than white
men. These disparities, combined with the fact that these ethnic groups are growing in
the United States, makes the study of these groups imperative.
Effects of humor. Turning to the actual effects of humor, much of the research
has found that it increases attention and intention (Eisend, 2009). These effects have
been stable over the last several decades, indicating a somewhat consistent underlying
mechanism despite the ongoing shift in what is considered humorous. Humor can also
reduce negative thoughts about a product by increasing positive mood and cognition
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about the ad (Eisend, 2011). Humor can also influence mood by prompting a positive
emotional response, which then carries over to the product being advertised. Cline and
Kellaris (1999) found that humor is more effective in ads that made a weak argument,
(characterized by moderate claims, e.g. “does not harm teeth”) than in ads that made a
strong argument (characterized by strong claims, e.g. “prevents tooth decay”). Some
researchers have found humor to be associated with credibility (Sternthal & Craig, 1973;
Wrench & Booth-Butterfield, 2003), but Eisend concludes in his review that humor
inhibits credibility (Eisend, 2009). Skalski and colleageus (2009) looked at how humor
affects presence, or the suspended awareness that one is being exposed to a message
mediated by an outside source. The researchers found that humor-induced presence leads
to higher credibility perceptions, but that it actually decreased recall of the message
content. On the other hand, Strick, Holland, Van Baaren, and Van Knippenberg (2012)
found that humor decreases resistance (an active avoidance of persuasion) because it is
both distracting and leads to positive associations. Humorous messages may lead to
increased liking and processing (see also Bippus, Dunbar, & Liu, 2012; Eisend, 2011;
Wrench & Booth-Butterfield, 2003), but could also be dismissed by audiences. Nabi,
Moyer-Gusé, and Byrne (2007) found that participants reading a humorous political
monologue had increased liking and processing of the message, and reduced counter-
argument, but they also tended to discount the message. Moyer-Gusé, Mahood, and
Brookes (2011) found that a humorous television show decreased perceptions of the
severity of unplanned pregnancy.
Little research has addressed whether humorous stimuli can encourage parent-
child sexual communication, a traditionally uncomfortable topic. Some evidence
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suggests that positive emotional responses encourage interpersonal communication,
(Frank et al., 2012), more so than negative emotional responses (Murphy et al., 2011).
The influence of humor regarding sexual health has had mixed findings. Grady and
Glazer (1994) found that participants were more open discussing their fears regarding
pregnancy and delivery after viewing a humorous television show about those topics.
However, Moyer-Gusé, Mahood, and Brookes (2011) conclude in their study that using
humor to portray serious sexual health consequences should be avoided to avoid
trivializing issues. Soscia, Turrini, and Tanzi (2012) found that humor in HIV/AIDS ads
was not very successful, and that fear appeals were better remembered. In one of the
only studies examining tone and parent-child communication Tanner and colleageues
(2008) looked at how parents responded to ads promoting abstinence-only education.
They found that when the ads portrayed a fear appeal about adolescent sexual health
outcomes, parents were more likely to intend to talk to their kids about sex. Although the
campaign was designed to encourage parents to talk about abstinence, parents reported
being motivated to talk to their children about other sexual issues, including but not
limited to abstinence, after viewing the ad. Because humor can have both positive (e.g.
increased liking) and negative (e.g. decreased credibility) repercussions it is necessary to
understand the effects of humor on parent-child sexual communication. Based on the
previous humor research the following hypotheses and research question are put forward.

H
2
: Participants will report liking a humorous PSA more than a non-humorous
PSA.

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H
3
: Participants who view a humorous PSA will perceive it as less credible than
participants who view a non-humorous PSA.

H
4
. Participants who view a humorous PSA will perceive parent-child sexual
communication as less important than participants who view a non-humorous
PSA.

RQ
1
: Does a humorous or non-humorous PSA predict greater intent to talk to
one’s child about sex?

While the above hypotheses address the effect of the tone (humor) of the PSA, it
is necessary to distinguish between tone and emotional response to tone. Although the
PSAs were designed to be humorous or non-humorous, the extent to which people
actually feel amused is likely to affect the outcomes. The literature sometimes suggests
that humor, as a tone describing a media product, and amusement, as an emotion felt by
the respondent, are essentially the same and have the same effect. In fact, some
researchers conflate these concepts, or measure outcomes based only on condition (tone),
rather than reaction to condition (emotional response), (see Galloway, 2009; Lynch,
2002; Moyer-Gusé et al., 2011; Nabi et al., 2007; Soscia et al., 2012), but distinguishing
these concepts is a crucial next step in emotion research. In fact, some researchers argue
that the biggest gap in the humor literature is a focus on responses to humor (Bell, 2009),
rather than on action tendencies associated with humor. Being in a humorous condition
does not necessarily result in an amused response. Subsequently, several hypotheses and
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research questions in this study are run first by tone (humorous versus non-humorous),
then within the humorous condition they are run by emotional response (extent
participant is actually amused).

H
5
: Among those parents who viewed a humorous public service announcement
(the humor condition), amusement will be positively associated with liking the
PSA.

H
6
: Among those parents who viewed a humorous public service announcement
(the humor condition), amusement will be negatively associated with the
perceived credibility of the PSA.

H
7
. Among those parents who viewed a humorous public service announcement
(the humor condition), amusement will be negatively associated with perceiving
parent-child sexual communication as important.

The role of emotion and humor in the TPB is underexplored, but extant research
suggests emotion plays a key role. Murphy and colleagues (2011) conclude in their
research that knowledge, attitudes and behaviors are strongly influenced by heightened
emotional responses. Keer, van den Putte, and Neijens (2012) found that emotion
mediated the influence of attitudes and self-efficacy in a study of 20 different health
behaviors. Kim, Njite, and Hancer (2013) looked at emotion in consumers’ intentions to
visit eco-friendly restaurants and concluded that theories like the TPB must include
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emotional components to more accurately explain intentions. Looking at the specific
components of the TPB, there has been little research on the role emotions play in
parents’ attitudes, self-efficacy and norm perceptions. Some research suggests a
normative function of humor. Frank and colleagues (2012) found that a light-hearted
condom PSA increased norm perceptions about condoms. Ford and Ferguson (2004)
found that disparagement humor decreased the extent to which people were offended by
discrimination. Khoury (1985) found that people in small groups tended to converge
with each other on the perceived humor of a joke, more than they did with a non-
humorous stimulus. These findings hint at the possibility that a humorous message could
make a certain behavior or attitude seem more normal. This research will address these
issues by analyzing the following research questions:

RQ
2
: What effect does tone (humor versus non-humor) have on norms, attitudes,
and self-efficacy with regard to parent-child sexual communication?

RQ
3
: What effect does amusement have on norms, attitudes, and self-efficacy?

Information-seeking. Emotions can also affect the way we seek information and
talk to others. Positive emotion experienced while viewing a narrative about cancer has
been associated with increased information-seeking (Murphy et al., 2011). Nabi, (2002)
found that angry messages encourage audiences to process information in a more in-
depth way, but fear-based messages do not. Dillard and Nabi (2006) suggest that
message producers need to acknowledge that not all emotions will have the desired
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persuasive effect and that researchers should work to determine which emotions are the
most appropriate for particular interventions. Subsequently the following research
question is addressed:

RQ
4
. Does exposure to a humorous or non-humorous PSA predict a greater
increase in information-seeking intentions and behaviors?
Outcome Expectations
Finally, one area that has also received little attention is parents’ outcome
expectations about talking to their child about sex. Outcome expectations are beliefs
about what will happen if a certain behavior is enacted (Bandura, 1998). Having
favorable outcome expectations with regards to PCSC has been associated with more
frequent parental sexual communication (DiIorio et al., 2000). Outcome expectations are
key predictors of behaviors, but one must first understand what a population believes
about the consequences of behaviors. As Fishbein and Capella put it “one must
understand the behavior from the perspective of the population for whom interventions
are being developed. Once understood in this way, these beliefs can serve as the basis for
messages and other interventions that can have an impact on the target behavior through
the mediating mechanisms” (Fishbein & Cappella, 2006, p. 56). Some researchers have
found that outcome expectations, namely that PCSC will be successful, predict
behavioral intentions, but a more comprehensive view of parents’ outcome expectations,
and how these may be different for their sons and daughters, has been lacking. Because
of this, the following research question is proposed:

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RQ
5
. What are parents’ expected outcomes of PCSC?

RQ
6
: Do parents’ outcome expectations regarding PCSC vary for sons and
daughters?

RQ
7
: How do expected outcomes and child’s gender predict intentions to talk to
one’s child about sex?

This dissertation proposes that PCSC could be promoted via a mediated
intervention aimed at parents, and investigates what impact the tone of the intervention
has on parents. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, the study will test the impact
of this intervention using two different tones (humorous or non-humorous) on injunctive
norm perceptions, attitudes, self-efficacy, intentions to talk to children about sex, and
information-seeking. The study will also address one of the major research gaps in PCSC
by measuring parents’ expected outcomes of PCSC and looking at the relationship that
this has with PCSC.
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Chapter Three: Methods
Sampling Procedure
To understand the effect of a humorous and non-humorous PSA on parents, an
online survey was administered to a convenience sample of Caucasian mothers of
adolescents between and including the ages 11 through 16, living in the United States.
The sample was limited to Caucasians because, as noted previously, humor is culture-
specific and this allows for a way to reduce cultural variation within the sample (using
ethnicity as a proxy for culture). Similarly, only women were included so that parent’s
gender could be controlled for, and to further limit variability, as there is evidence that
men respond differently to humor than women (Soscia et al., 2012). Because onset of
puberty is usually the time when parents are most likely to start talking to their children
about sex, pre-pubescent children were not included in the study. The age range of the
participant’s child was selected based on puberty guidelines by the National Institutes of
Health, which list age 11-16 as post-pubescence (National Institutes of Health, n.d.).
Sampling was handled by a third-party survey company, Qualtrics. Qualtrics
recruits panel members from across the United States, via social media and other online
advertising, and selects participants from this pool based on qualifying demographic
variables, in this case being a Caucasian mother with a child between the ages of 11 to
16. Participants were compensated $2 to participate in the survey, which took an average
of seven minutes to complete. The study was approved by the University of Southern
California’s Institutional Review Board (UPIRB # 13-00339).
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A convenience sample of 475 mothers of adolescents between 11 and 16 were
recruited from the Qualtrics panel. Because participants were required to view a 35-
second PSA before answering questions in the survey, two manipulation checks were put
in place to ensure that participants had indeed viewed the PSA. The first was that
participants were unknowingly timed for how long they spent on the survey page with the
PSA embedded in it. Thirteen participants were eliminated from the sample for spending
less than 35 seconds on the page. To ensure participants had actually watched the PSA
they were also asked to confirm what the PSA was about, by indicating whether the PSA
mentioned condoms, diabetes, or drunk driving. Three participants incorrectly selected
diabetes or drunk driving and were eliminated from the study. Seventeen people were
eliminated from the analysis due to the response bias of yea-saying. This resulted in a
final sample of 442 participants. Most participants watched the PSA once, but a small
fraction watched it twice (4%, n = 18), or three times (1%, n =6), and all of these
participants were kept in the study.
Sample Characteristics
All participants self-identified as Caucasian, female, and having a child between
11 and 16 years old. The average age of participants was 38 (SD = 9.55). Ten percent
had less than a high school diploma, 29% had a high school diploma or GED, 28% had
some college experience, and 33% had a Bachelor’s degree or higher. This is close to
national averages for Caucasians in the United States, with 12% having less than a high
school diploma, 29% having a high school diploma or GED, 30% having some college
experience, and 29% having a Bachelor degree or higher (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.). The
sample was slightly more politically conservative than liberal, with 51% identifying as
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Republican, 47% as Democrat and the remaining 2% as other. Because some participants
may have multiple children in the 11-16 age range, they were asked to answer questions
only about their oldest child in that age range. Slightly over half of participants answered
questions about their son (50.5%, n = 223), and 49.5% answered questions about their
daughter (n = 219). The average age of the child participants answered questions about
was 13.72 (SD = 1.69), with age broken down as follows: 13.1% were 11-year-olds,
13.7% were 12-year-olds, 19.5% were 13-year-olds, 15.2% were 14-year-olds, 18.1%
were 15-year-olds, and 20.4% were 16-year-olds.
Stimulus Materials
For this study two different PSAs designed to encourage PCSC were created, one
with a humorous tone (Figure 3.1) and one with a non-humorous tone (Figure 3.2). The
concept behind the PSAs was to show what happens when parents do not talk to their
children about sex. The PSA uses incongruity humor, which is humor that involves a
discrepancy, or something unexpected. This type of humor was used for the PSA
because it is the most commonly used type in advertising, and has been found to be
effective (Spotts, Weinberger, & Parsons, 1997). The PSAs were identical in some areas,
and similar, but different in others, in order to convey the appropriate tone. Both PSAs
were 35 seconds long and featured a montage of six short clips of young adults making
incorrect statements about sexual health.

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Figure 3.1 Screenshots of Humorous PSA

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Figure 3.2 Screenshots of Non-Humorous PSA

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The PSAs begin with a text-only clip, with the words “The following adults had
parents who never talked to them about sex.” What follows is the six young adults
revealing misconceptions they have about sexual health issues, including condoms,
pregnancy, abstinence, birth control, and STDs. In the humorous condition these
statements include “Why would I need condoms? I don’t know how to make balloon
animals,” “It’s awesome that you can’t get pregnant during a full moon. Party!” “I could
never be abstinent. That means not eating bacon, right?” “Birth control? My apartment is
in my roommate’s name so a stork could never find me,” “You can avoid getting
someone pregnant by wishing extra hard,” and “STD stands for super tasty donuts. I love
STDs!”
In the non-humorous condition the statements match the topics in the humorous
condition, but lack humorous overtones: “I’m not sure why I would need to use
condoms,” “I’ve heard it’s hard to get pregnant, so I don’t worry about it,” “I never
realized abstinence was an option for guys,” “Birth control is only for promiscuous
women,” “I doubt I could get someone pregnant,” and “STDs are rare, so I don’t have to
worry about it.” The final two clips in the PSAs feature text, with the first reading “Don’t
let your child grow up to be like them.” The last clip reads “Talk to your kids about sex.
Early and often.” At the bottom is a link to the website created to measure information-
seeking behavior. The images of the adults in both PSAs are similar but not identical.
All the people are Caucasian and appear to be in their early twenties. Similar looking
actors were used in each clip for both conditions (for example, a red-haired man in a
dress shirt, a woman with long, straight blonde hair and eyeglasses). Different images
were used such that in the humorous condition the actors appear to be making more
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expressive, humorous faces and in the non-humorous PSA they have more serious
expressions.
Procedures
Participants were informed that they would be taking part in a survey about
health. After viewing information about informed consent, participants were randomly
assigned to one of two conditions (humorous PSA or non-humorous PSA). They began
the survey by viewing one of these two 35-second PSA videos. After viewing the PSA
participants completed the survey questionnaire, which had questions about their
reactions to the PSA, expected outcomes of PCSC, information seeking behavior,
injunctive norm perceptions, self-efficacy, attitudes, and intentions to talk with their child
about sex. Because some participants may have multiple children in the 11-16 age range,
they were asked to think of their oldest child in the 11-16 age range. They were then
asked to give that child’s age, gender
1
, and first name. The first name of the child was
piped into the remainder of the study, allowing the survey to be tailored to each
participant (e.g. “How important is it to you to talk to Taylor about sex?”). At the end of
the survey participants were provided with a link to a website with more information
about parent-child sexual communication.
This results in a 2 (gender of child) x 2 (humorous vs. non-humorous PSA)
between subjects design. The hypotheses and research questions in this study were
addressed using ANCOVA, 2x2 ANOVA, one-way MANOVA, repeated measures

1

The term “gender” is used because the survey asked parents about their son or daughter,
as opposed to biologically determined “sex.” It is important to note, however, that a
parents’ assessments of their child’s gender may not match their child’s assessment.

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ANOVA, and multiple linear regressions, with alpha levels set at .05. All analyses were
conducted with SPSS version 21.0. These analyses are presented in Chapter 4.
Pilot Testing
After developing the PSAs and the survey, the study was piloted on a sample of
38 participants recruited from the Qualtrics panel, with the same characteristics of the
final sample (female, Caucasian, mothers of 11-16 year-olds). Half of participants were
randomly assigned to view the humorous PSA and the other half were assigned to the
non-humorous PSA. The results from these 38 participants were analyzed to check the
validity of scales, check for systematic non-responses, and to test that participants
perceived the humorous PSA as funny, and the non-humorous PSA as not funny.
Analyses were also conducted to ensure that unintended reactions to the PSAs (feeling
confused, afraid, angry, or disgusted by either PSA) were avoided. Participants in the
humorous condition gave the PSA a mean humor score of 6.00 (SD = 2.81) on a 10-point
scale measuring how funny the PSA was, where 1 meant “Not At All Funny” and 10
meant “Extremely Funny.” Participants in the non-humorous condition gave the PSA a
mean humor score of 1.78 (SD = 1.93). For both conditions, participants reported that
the extent to which they were confused, angry, afraid or disgusted were all below 2.5 on
the 10-point scale. Based on the results from the pilot study, no changes were made to
the final questionnaire or stimuli.
Measures, Reliability, and Validity
All of the questions on the survey were developed and revised based on cognitive
interviews with ten parents of adolescents. This was done to help ensure that respondents
found the questions to be clear and easy to answer. The survey questionnaire was then
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tested in the pilot study previously mentioned, and the final version of the survey
included questions about reactions to the PSA, importance and impact of PCSC,
information-seeking intentions, injunctive norm perceptions, self-efficacy with regard to
PCSC, attitudes about PCSC, outcome expectations from PCSC, past PCSC, and future
intended PCSC. The full text of the final survey instrument can be found in Appendix A.
Manipulation check and reactions to PSA. Immediately after viewing the PSA
parents were asked how funny they perceived the PSA to be, on a 10-point scale from 1,
meaning “Not At All Funny” to 10 meaning “Extremely Funny” (all descriptive statistics
for scales and questions are given in the Results section). They were also asked the
extent to which the PSA made them feel confused, surprised, angry, amused, afraid, and
disgusted on a 10-point scale where 1 implied “Not At All” and 10 implied “Extremely”
Participants also indicated how many times they viewed the PSA. To measure liking,
participants were asked “To what extent did you…” “like the PSA,” “find the PSA
interesting,” and “pay attention the PSA,” on a 10-point scale from “Not At All” to
“Extremely.” Credibility was assessed with two statements: “I think the general message
of this PSA is believable,” and “I think the people that made this PSA are telling the
truth,” with participants indicating their agreement on a 10-point scale from “Strongly
Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”.
Importance and impact of PCSC. Two single-item questions were used to
assess how important parents perceive PCSC to be, as well as its perceived impact. The
first was asked “How important is it for you to talk to [child’s name] about sex” on a
scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being “Not At All Important” and 10 being “Extremely
Important.” The other question was “What impact, if any, do you think talking to [child’s
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name] about sex will have on him/her” on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being “No Impact
At All” and 10 being “Very Strong Impact.”
Information-seeking. Information-seeking intentions and behaviors were
assessed separately. Information-seeking intentions were assessed on the survey, while
information-seeking behaviors were assessed by analyzing how many participants visited
the informative website mentioned in the PSA. Information-seeking intentions were
measured by asking participants how much they agreed with three statements, all on a 10-
point scale from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”: “I would like advice on how
to talk to my child about sex,” “I have a lot to learn about how to talk to my child about
sex,” and “ I would be interested in learning more about how to talk to my child about
sex.” All three items loaded onto one factor, and Cronbach’s α = .931.
Information-seeking behaviors were assessed by creating an informational
website and directing participants to it at the end of the survey. Two identical websites
were created (see Figure 3.3). Participants in the humor condition were directed to one
website (talkingtoyourchild.weebly.com) and participants in the non-humor condition
were directed to another website (talktoyourchild.weebly.com). Both websites were
identical in every way, with the exception of the slightly different URL address (which
was needed in order to distinguish whether participants came from the humor or non-
humor condition). The websites had six pages: Home, Helpful Tips, Overcoming
Embarrassment, Why It Matters, Handling Specific Questions, and Videos (the latter
linked to information videos gleaned from other websites, not the stimulus videos used
for the study). All the information from the website was written based on
recommendations from other parenting resource websites and other studies on the topic.
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Figure 3.3. Screenshot of Informational Website (Identical in Both Conditions)

Injunctive norms about parent-child sexual communication. Many studies
that measure injunctive norms do so by asking either the extent to which participants
perceive other people of approving of the participant doing something (see Buunk &
Bakker, 1995), or the extent to which participants approve of other people doing
something. To measure injunctive norms for this study, both approaches were used. The
first scale, Approval From Others, was assessed by asking “How much do you think other
parents would approve of you talking to [child’s name] about the following?” followed
by a list of eight sexual topics (using birth control, STDs, dating and relationships,
waiting to have sex, positive aspects of sex, pregnancy prevention, abstinence, and sexual
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anatomy). This scale had 10 points, ranging from “Not At All” to “Extremely.”
Principal component analysis revealed all items loaded onto one factor, and reliability for
Approval From Others was high at Cronbach’s α = .930.
To measure Approval For Others, two scales were used, one about sons (“How
much do you think other parents should talk to their sons about the following?”) and one
about daughters (“How much do you think other parents should talk to their daughters
about the following?”), on a 7-point range from “Never” to “Very Frequently”, using the
same eight sexual topics from the previous scale. Responses for the son and daughter
scale were similar, so a principal component analysis was conducted to test whether the
two scales could be combined. The analysis revealed that all 16 items from both scales
loaded onto one factor. Consequently, the two scales were averaged into one overall
Approval For Others scale. Cronbach’s α for this scale was .851.
Self-efficacy. Self-efficacy has been found to predict PCSC in the past, but there
are no published scales for parental efficacy in talking to their child about sex. A new
scale was created to measure parents’ perceived self-efficacy in talking to their children
about sex, based partly on a communication self-efficacy scale developed in a previous
study (Pariera, under review). Participants were asked to indicate their agreement with
six statements on a 5-point scale from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” Items
included “I can talk to my child about any sexual issue,” “I can answer any sex-related
questions my child asks me,” “I know how to handle difficult conversations with my
child,” “If I want to have a talk with my child about sex, it’s easy for me to do so,” “I can
remain calm if my child seems anxious or nervous about talking about sex,” and “I am
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comfortable talking to my child about sex.” Principal component analysis revealed that
all six items loaded onto one factor, and Cronbach’s α was .918.
Attitudes. To assess attitudes toward PCSC, participants were given eight
attitude statements and asked to indicated their agreement on a 10-point scale ranging
from “Not At All” to “Extremely.” The scale included the phrase “Talking with [child’s
name] about sex…” followed by the phrases “…is embarrassing,” “…is a humorous
experience,” “…brings us closer,” “…is part of being a parent,” “…is a positive
experience,” “…makes me nervous,” “…is something I look forward to,” and “…is
uncomfortable.” The items “is embarrassing,” “makes me nervous,” and “is
uncomfortable” were reverse coded.
During normality testing one item, “is part of being a parent” appeared to be
highly skewed showing a ceiling effect (M = 9.49, SD = 1.15). This item was
subsequently removed from the scale. During principal component analysis, inspection
of the correlation matrix revealed that one item, “is a humorous experience” did not have
any correlation higher than .223 so this item was also removed from the scale and
principal component analysis was completed. The correlation matrix showed that all
variables had at least one correlation higher than .354. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin for the
whole scale was .740, and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin for each item was than .623 or higher.
Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant (p < .001).
Principal component analysis revealed two components with eigenvalues greater
than one and which explained 48% and 25% of the total variance respectively, and these
two components were retained. The two-component solution explained 73% of the total
variance. A varimax orthogonal rotation was employed to aid interpretability. The
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rotated solution was interpreted as a positive attitude factor, and negative attitude factor.
The first component, Positive Attitudes, consisted of the “brings us closer,” “is a positive
experience,” and “is something I look forward to” items. The second component,
Negative Attitudes, consisted of “is embarrassing,” “makes me nervous,” and “is
uncomfortable.” These items were combined into two separate scales. Cronbach’s α for
Positive Attitudes was .691, and the Cronbach’s α for Negative Attitudes was .882.
Outcome expectations. Since past research has found that outcome expectations
predict behavioral intentions (Fishbein & Cappella, 2006; Rimal & Real, 2003),
participants were asked the outcomes they think may result from talking to their child
about sex. This included eight items for parents to indicate their agreement on a 7-point
scale from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” This scale begins with the phrase
“If I talk to [child’s name] about sex he/she will..” followed by the eight items “…wait to
have sex until they’re married,” “…not want to have sex,” “…have healthy romantic
relationships” “…not get pregnant or get someone pregnant,” “…be able to say no to
sex,” “…protect themselves against STDs,” “…have a good attitude about sex,” and
“…have more respect for themselves.”
Principal component analysis was run and two items had Eigenvalues greater than
one, which explained 52% and 18% of the variance respectively, with both items
explaining 70% of total variance. A varimax orthogonally rotated solution was
interpreted and only two items loaded onto the second factor: “will wait to have sex until
they’re married” and “will not want to have sex.” The final measure was created from the
first factor (Cronbach’s α = .883). Because there were only two items in the second
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measure a separate factor was not created for it. Instead, all eight items, including these
two, are analyzed separately in the results.
Parent-child sexual communication. Participants were asked about their past
and intended sexual communication with their child. Past sexual communication was
assessed with one single-item question and one scale. The single item question assessed
whether the parent had ever talked to the child about sex (“Yes,” “No, but I plan to,” and
“No, and I do not plan to.”). The scale assessed past PCSC by asking “In the previous 12
months, how often have you talked to [child’s name] about the following issues?” The
same eight items from the norms scale were used, and parents indicated the frequency of
these conversations on a 10-point scale from Never to All The Time. Principal
component analysis revealed all items loaded onto one factor, and Cronbach’s α was high
at .950.
Future PCSC was also assessed with a single item question and a scale. The
single item asked “How likely is it that you will talk to [child’s name] about sex in the
next 7 days?” on a 10-point scale from Not At All Likely to “Extremely Likely.” The
scale was almost identical to the past PCSC scale, beginning with the question “Over the
next 12 months how often do you plan to talk to [child’s name] about each of the
following issues?” followed by the eight topics previously mentioned, and asked on a 10-
point scale from Never to All The Time. Principal component analysis revealed all items
loaded onto one factor, and Cronbach’s α was again high at .940.

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Chapter Four: Results
Descriptive Statistics
The survey included questions on communication behaviors, injunctive norms,
attitudes, self-efficacy, behavioral intentions, and information-seeking behavior (see
Appendix A for survey instrument). Means and standard deviations are presented in
Table 4.1. Descriptive analysis revealed that the humorous PSA was perceived as funny
(M = 5.98, SD = 2.90) and the non-humorous PSA was not perceived as funny (M =
1.67, SD = 1.68). The extent to which participants in either condition reported that the
PSA made them feel confused, angry, afraid, or disgusted (all which were unintended)
were 3.30 or lower, on the 10-point scale (see Table 4.2). The extent to which
participants reported liking the PSA, finding it interesting, paying attention to it, and
finding it credible were above the mid-point for both conditions.
Independent samples t-tests were conducted to see whether reactions to the PSA
varied significantly between groups. As would be expected, how funny the PSA was
(t(440) = -19.11, p < .001), and how amused the participant was (t(440) = -12.04, p <
.001) were significantly different between conditions. Within the humor condition, how
funny they perceived the PSA as and how amused they were by it, were strongly,
positively correlated (r = .647, p < .001).

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Table 4.1. Means and Standard Deviations for Variables of Interest (N = 442).

Variable

M

SD
Perceived Importance of PCSC 8.85 1.39
Information-Seeking Intentions 5.36 2.86
Norms
Approval From Others 8.03 1.71
Approval For Others 4.96 .76
Self-Efficacy (5-pt scale) 4.13 .75
Attitudes
Negative Attitudes 6.19 2.70
Positive Attitudes 7.47 1.84
Outcome Expectations (7-pt scale) 5.80 .88
PCSC in past 12 months 5.56 2.70
PCSC in next 7 days 5.24 2.90
PCSC in next 12 months 6.71 2.10
Note. All variables measured on a 10-point scale, except where noted.

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Table 4.2. Means and Standard Deviations for Reactions to both PSAs (N = 442).
Humorous Non-Humorous

Variable

M

SD

M

SD

t
How Funny 5.98 2.90 1.67 1.68 -19.11***
Confused 1.88 1.84 1.58 1.45 -2.03
Surprised 4.24 2.93 3.78 3.15 -1.61
Angry 2.66 2.42 2.95 2.70 1.17
Amused 4.71 2.96 1.87 1.86 -12.04***
Afraid 2.95 2.54 3.30 2.98 1.32
Disgusted 3.21 2.74 2.87 2.65 -1.30
Liked PSA 6.11 2.85 7.12 2.23 4.14***
Found PSA Interesting 6.18 2.90 7.39 2.30 4.84***
Paid Attention to PSA 8.11 2.04 8.33 1.89 1.19
Credibility of PSA 6.65 2.73 8.18 2.06 6.66***
Note. All variables measured on a 10-point scale. ***p < .001

Most participants had talked to their children about sex, with 80.1% reporting
they already had (n = 354) and 19.9% reporting they had not, but planned to (n = 88).
Frequency of past PCSC was near the mid-point on the 10-point scale (M = 5.56, SD =
2.27). Participants rated the perceived importance (M = 9.13, SD = 1.40) and impact (M
= 8.57, SD = 1.70) of PCSC as quite high on the 10-point scale.
Analyses of Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1. The first hypothesis was that a parent’s attitudes (H
1a
), injunctive
norms (H
1b
), and perceived self-efficacy (H
1c
) would predict intentions to talk to their
child about sex, in keeping with the Theory of Planned Behavior. Normality testing
revealed that self-efficacy and approval from others were slightly negatively skewed. A
reflect and square root transformation was applied and the transformed variables were
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normally distributed. A stepwise linear regression was run with PCSC intentions over the
next 12 months as the outcome. Child’s gender and age were entered in Step One. Step
Two included attitudes (positive attitude scale and negative attitude scale), norms
(approval for others and approval from other), and self-efficacy as predictors. For all
regressions in this study there were no serious violations of multicollinearity,
homogeneity of error variances, normality of residuals, and linearity. A significant
model emerged (F(5, 376) = 52.25, p < .001), with three of the five key variables adding
significance to the model: positive attitudes, approval for others, and self-efficacy.
Child’s age and gender were also significant. The variables with the largest coefficients
were approval for others and self-efficacy (see Table 4.3 for details). The total model
explained 40% of the variance, and Hypothesis
1abc
was supported, such that attitudes (one
of two attitude scales), injunctive norms (one of two injunctive norm scales), and self-
efficacy predicted PCSC intentions.
Table 4.3. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Predictors of PCSC
Intentions in the next 12 months.
Variable B SE(B)
β
t Sig. (p)
Child’s Age
.155 .050 .129 3.079 .002**
Child’s Gender
.352 .169 .086 2.081 .038*
Positive Attitudes
.153 .056 .136 2.749 .006**
Negative Attitudes
.006 .181 .002 .036 .972
Approval From Others .281 .190 .068 1.480 .140
Approval For Others 1.211 .124 .438 9.778 .000***
Self-Efficacy .596 .160 .217 3.736 .000***
Note. R
2
= .408 Adjusted R
2
= .396, * p = < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

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Because two different intentions were measured – in the next seven days and in
the next 12 months – a separate but similar regression was run with intentions to talk to
one’s child about sex in the next seven days. The model that emerged was different, with
child’s age, approval from others, approval for others, positive attitudes, and self efficacy
all contributing to the model. The total model explained 28% of the variance, and the
variables with the largest coefficients were self-efficacy, approval from others, and
approval for others. See Table 4.4 for details.
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Table 4.4. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Predictors of PCSC
Intentions in the next 7 days.
Variable B SE(B)
β
t Sig. (p)
Child’s Age
.184 .078 .109 2.365 .019*
Child’s Gender
.247 .260 .043 .950 .343
Positive Attitudes
.253 .086 .160 2.956 .003**
Negative Attitudes
-.096 .278 -.019 -.346 .730
Approval From Others .856 .292 .147 2.931 .004**
Approval For Others 1.271 .191 .327 6.664 .000***
Self-Efficacy .997 .245 .258 4.068 .000***
Note. R
2
= .289 Adjusted R
2
= .275, * p = < .05** p < .01, *** p < .001

Hypotheses 2, 3, 4. In keeping with past research on the use of humor in media,
it was hypothesized that participants in the humorous condition would like the PSA more
(H
2
), would perceive it as less credible (H
3
) and would perceive PCSC as less important
(H
4
). Because humor often leads to liking it was hypothesized that the humorous PSA
would be liked more than the non-humorous PSA. An independent t-test revealed that
participants in the non-humorous condition reported liking the PSA more (t(440) = 4.12,
p < .001) and finding it more interesting (t(440) = 4.84, p < .001) than in the humorous
condition. Hypothesis two was not supported, and in fact, the reverse was found.
Credibility was significantly higher in the non-humorous condition (t(440) = 6.66, p <
.001), supporting hypothesis three. In testing that the perceived importance (or
seriousness) of PCSC would be diminished in the humorous condition, an independent
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samples t-test was run. Results revealed that there was no significant difference between
conditions (t(440) = .345, p = .704), and hypothesis four was not supported.
Hypotheses 5, 6, 7. It was also hypothesized that amusement, like humor, would
be positively associated with liking the PSA (H
5
), negatively associated with credibility
(H
6
), and perceived importance of PCSC (H
7
). Within the humor condition, three
ANCOVAs were run (instead of Pearson’s correlations, which are more likely to result in
a Type I error) with amusement as the covariate and likability, credibility, and perceived
importance as the dependent variables. Amusement was significantly and positively
associated with liking the PSA, F(224) = 143.053, p < .001, and finding it interesting,
F(224) = 148.448, p < .001, and hypothesis five was supported. Amusement was
positively associated with perceived credibility, F(224) = 43.016, p < .001, meaning
hypothesis six was not supported, and the reverse was found. Perceived importance was
not significantly associated with amusement, F(224) = .892, p = .346, and hypothesis
seven was not supported. See Figures 4.1 and 4.2 for a comparison of the differences
between tone and emotional response to tone.
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Figure 4.1. Perceptions of PSAs Between Conditions.

Figure 4.2. Perceptions of Humorous PSA, By Amusement.

6.65
8.83
6.11
6.18
8.18
8.87
7.12
7.39
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Credibility* Perceived
Importance
Likability* Found
Interesting*
Humorous
Non-Humorous
7.65
8.95
7.93
8.09
6.07
8.76
5.06 5.08
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Credibility* Perceived
Importance
Likability* Found
Interesting*
High Amusement
Low Amusement
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Analyses of Research Questions
Research Question 1. The first research question asked if a humorous or non-
humorous PSA predicts greater intentions to talk to one’s child about sex. Regression
analysis revealed that, controlling for the child’s gender and age, the tone of the PSA did
not significantly predict intentions to talk to one’s child about sex in the next 7 days (p =
.136) or 12 months (p = .133). The child’s gender (dummy coded, with boys = 0 and
girls = 1) was also not a significant predictor of intentions, but age was, in that as age
increased, so did parents’ intentions to talk to them about sex in the next 7 days (B =
.285, p < .005) or 12 months (B = .288, p < .005).
Because the research attempts to disentangle tone and emotion, a similar model
was run on the participants in the humorous condition, with amusement as the predictor.
In this case, being amused by the PSA did significantly predict intentions to talk to one’s
child about sex in the next 7 days (p < .001) and 12 months (p = .01). Gender was not
significant, but once again age was. See table 4.5 for regression details.
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Table 4.5. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Amusement as Predictor of
PCSC Intentions (Humor Condition Only).
Variable B SE(B)
β
t Sig. (p)
Outcome variable: PCSC intentions in next 7 days:
Child’s Gender .633 .362 .113 1.750 .082
Child’s Age .242 .110 .142 2.203 .029*
Amusement from PSA .229 .061 .241 3.733 .000***

Outcome variable: PCSC intentions in next 12 months:
Child’s Gender .491 .283 .114 1.733 .085
Child’s Age .254 .082 .204 3.106 .002**
Amusement from PSA .219 .076 .189 2.863 .005**
Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

Research Questions 2 and 3. The second research question asked what effect
the PSA’s tone (humorous versus non-humorous) would have on norms, attitudes, and
self-efficacy with regard to parent-child sexual communication. To answer this question
a one-way multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) was run. Preliminary assumption
checking revealed normal distribution of data, as assessed by Shapiro-Wilk test (p > .05);
no multivariate outliers, as assessed by Mahalanobis test (p > .001), and there was
homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices, as assessed by Box’s test (p = .848). The
test revealed that PSA condition had no effect on any of the dependent variables. The
third research question similarly asked what effect amusement would have on norms,
attitudes, and self-efficacy. A median split was done on amusement, and a MANOVA
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was run on participants in the humor condition. There was homogeneity of variance-
covariance matrices, as assessed by Box’s test (p = .511). There was a significant
difference between high and low amusement on the combined dependent variables: F(5,
179) = 5.276, p < .001; Wilks' Λ = .872; partial η
2
= .128. Specifically, there was
significant difference in approval from others F(1,183) = 16.149, p < .001; partial η
2
=
.081, and self-efficacy F(1, 183) = 6.52, p = .011; partial η
2
= .065 between high and
low amusement (see Table 4.6), indicating that higher amusement was associated with
higher perceived approval from others and higher self-efficacy.
Table 4.6. Differences Between High and Low Amusement on Norms, Attitudes,
and Self- Efficacy.
Low
Amusement
High
Amusement

Variable
M (SD)

M (SD)

F

Sig. (p)
Approval For Others
4.96 (.76) 4.96 (.75) .448 .504
Approval From Others
7.82 (1.75) 8.48 (1.52) 16.149 .000***
Negative Attitudes
6.24 (2.70) 6.08 (2.69) .933 .335
Positive Attitudes
7.28 (1.87) 7.89 (1.69) .168 .682
Self-Efficacy
4.09 (.75) 4.19 (.74) 6.520 .011**
Note. ** p < .01, *** p < .001

Research Question 4. The fourth question asked, in which condition (humorous
versus non-humorous) does exposure to the PSA predict a greater increase in
information-seeking intentions and behaviors? Information-seeking intentions were
assessed on the survey questionnaire. An independent samples t-test revealed that
information-seeking intentions did vary between PSA conditions, with higher
information-seeking intentions in the non-humor condition t(440) = 2.074, p = .039. To
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test whether information-seeking intentions varied by amusement in the humorous
condition, an ANCOVA was run with information-seeking as the dependent variable and
amusement as the covariate. There was a moderate, positive association between
amusement and information-seeking intentions (F(224) = 12.959, p < .001).
Information-seeking behaviors were assessed by analyzing how many people in
each condition visited an informational website. Using Google Analytics, web traffic
records indicated that 24 people visited the informational website from the non-humor
condition, and 22 people visited the informational website from the humor condition, for
a total of 10% of all participants. There was no significant difference between the
number of participants who visited the website from either condition. Participants in the
humor condition spent an average of 32 seconds on the website, and visited an average of
three pages within the website (out of six). The most visited pages, aside from the
homepage, were Helpful Tips, Overcoming Embarrassment, and Why It Matters.
Participants in the non-humor condition also visited about three pages per visit, and those
were the same pages as participants in the humor condition. However, they spent over
twice as long on the website, with the average time at one minute and eight seconds.
Research Question 5. This question assessed parents’ expected outcomes from
talking to their children about sex, and how these outcomes predicted intentions to talk to
their child about sex. Overall outcome expectations were moderate (M = 5.72, SD =
.88). In looking at individual items, parents strongly agreed that talking to their child
about sex would result in their child having more respect for themselves and protecting
themselves against STDs. Parents were least likely to agree that talking to their child
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about sex would make the child not want to have sex, or would make the child wait until
they’re married to have sex (see Figure 4.3).

Figure 4.3. Parents’ Expected Outcomes From PCSC.
3.91
4.45
5.5 5.56 5.62
5.92
6.07 6.12
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
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Research Question 6. A one-way MANOVA was also run to see if outcome
expectations vary by gender of the child (Table 4.7). There was a statistically significant
difference between child’s gender on the combined outcome expectations, F(4.936,
2584.121) = 4.936, p < .001; Wilks' Λ = .916; partial η
2
= .084. Only two of the eight
items differed significantly between genders: Will Not Want To Have Sex, (p < .001),
and Will Be Able To Say No To Sex (p < .001). Participants with daughters were more
likely to believe talking to their child about sex would result in them not wanting to have
sex, and being able to say no to sex, more than participants with sons. A similar test was
run with gender and PSA condition as fixed factors, but PSA condition did not
significantly predict outcome expectations, nor was there an interaction between PSA
condition and gender.

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Table 4.7. Parents Outcome Expectations From PCSC, By Child’s Gender.
Sons Daughters
Variable
M (SD)

M (SD)

F

Sig. (p)
Not want to have sex
3.63 (1.68) 4.21 (1.69) 13.043 .000***
Wait to have sex until
marriage
4.32 (1.63) 4.58 (1.59) 2.718 .100
Be able to say no to sex
5.23 (1.24) 5.77 (1.13) 22.319 .000***
Have healthy romantic
relationships
5.52 (1.08) 5.60 (1.19) .462 .497
Not get (someone)
pregnant
5.57 (1.22) 5.67 (1.25) .626 .429
Have a good attitude
about sex
5.88 (1.03) 5.96 (1.05) .728 .394
Protect themselves
against STDs
6.03 (1.04) 6.12 (1.00) .803 .371
Have more respect for
themselves
6.03 (1.02) 6.21 (.97) 3.550 .060
Note. *** p < .001

Research Question 7. To understand how outcome expectations predict
intentions to talk to one’s child about sex, a regression was run with child’s gender and
outcome expectations as predictors and PCSC in the next seven days as the outcome
variable. A significant model emerged (F(2, 441) = 16.388, p < .001), with the only
significant predictor being outcome expectations (B = .823, p < .001), but only
explained 7% of the variance. The same model was run, but with PCSC in the next 12
months as the outcome variable, and a similar model emerged (F(2, 441) = 18.919, p <
.001), with outcome expectations being significant (B = .645, p < .001), and the model
explaining 8% of the variance.
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Other Post-hoc Analyses
Because a large portion of this study was exploratory in nature and analyzed
largely by research questions, the results brought to light certain issues that warranted
further analysis. To provide a more comprehensive analysis of predictors of PCSC
intentions, a full model was run with all the key variables of interest as predictors:
attitudes, injunctive norms, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, past PCSC, condition,
child’s age and child’s gender. A significant model emerged (F(9, 367) = 63.144, p <
.001) with past PCSC, positive attitudes, and approval for others as the only three
significant predictors of intentions to talk to one’s child about sex in the next year (see
Table 4.8 for regression details).
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Table 4.8. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Predictors of PCSC
Intentions in the next 12 months (Full Model)
Variable B SE(B)
β
t Sig. (p)
Past PCSC
.418 .032 .543 12.916 .000***
Outcome Expectations
-.101 .092 -.043 -1.096 .274
Child’s Gender
.274 .142 .067 1.929 .055
Condition
-.172 .141 -.042 -1.219 .224
Positive Attitudes
.097 .048 .087 2.014 .045*
Negative Attitudes
-.035 .152 -.010 -.229 .819
Approval From Others .049 .160 .012 .305 .761
Approval For Others .839 .110 .303 7.646 .000***
Self-Efficacy -.295 .399 -.038 -.737 .461
Note. R
2
= .586 Adjusted R
2
= .576, * p = < .05, *** p < .001

A similar regression was run with PCSC intentions in the next seven days as the
outcome variable. A significant model emerged (F(9, 367) = 31.815, p < .001) with
three of the variables contributing to the model: past PCSC, approval from others and
approval for others. This model explained 43% of the total variance. See Table 4.9 for
regression details.
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Table 4.9. Summary of Multiple Regression Analysis for Predictors of PCSC
Intentions in the next 7 days (Full Model)
Variable B SE(B)
β
t Sig. (p)
Past PCSC
.532 .053 .492 10.093 .000***
Outcome Expectations
.040 .150 .012 .270 .788
Child’s Gender
.129 .231 .023 .558 .577
Condition
-.268 .230 -.047 -1.164 .245
Positive Attitudes
.143 .079 .091 1.818 .070
Negative Attitudes
-.216 .248 -.044 -.872 .384
Approval From Others .611 .260 .105 2.345 .020**
Approval For Others .744 .179 .191 4.161 .000***
Self-Efficacy -1.099 .650 -.102 -1.689 .092
Note. R
2
= .444 Adjusted R
2
= .430, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

Because some of the outcome expectations varied by the child’s gender, it was
suspected that the perceived importance of PCSC may also vary by the child’s gender. A
one-way ANOVA revealed that perceived importance of PCSC did not vary by gender
(F(1,441) = 1.821, p = .178), and a Pearson correlation revealed that child’s age was not
significantly correlated with perceived importance of PCSC.
Finally, although it was not initially of interest, because some parents had not
talked to their child about sex yet (but planned to) it became clear that various outcomes
and attitudes may vary as a function of whether or not parents had already talked to their
child about sex. While 80.1% reported they had talked to their child about sex at some
point and 19.9% reporting they had not, but planned to, these numbers were also explored
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by gender. A chi-square revealed that there was no significant association between
gender and whether or not the participant had talked to their child about sex.
One-way ANOVAs were also run with several key variables, to see if they varied
by whether or not participants had already talked to their child about sex. Results
revealed that information-seeking, self-efficacy, negative and positive attitudes, approval
for others, perceived importance and outcome expectations all varied significantly
between parents who had and had not talked to their child about sex. Approval from
others was the only variable tested that did not vary between parents who had and had not
talked to their child about sex. See Table 4.10 for details.

Table 4.10. Differences Between Parents Who Have And Have Not Talked To
Their Child About Sex
Have
Talked
Have Not
Talked

Variable
M (SD)

M (SD)

F

Sig. (p)
Information-Seeking
4.96 (2.84) 6.97 (2.32) 37.828 .000***
Self-Efficacy
4.27 (.68) 3.59 (.75) 56.006 .000***
Negative Attitudes
6.57 (2.63) 4.68 (2.42) 37.632 .000***
Positive Attitudes
7.67 (1.79) 6.69 (1.83) 20.527 .000***
Approval For Others
5.02 (.74) 4.70 (.78) 12.151 .001**
Approval From Others
8.08 (1.73) 7.83 (1.59) 2.174 .141
Perceived Importance
9.06 (1.20) 7.99 (1.75) 45.951 .000***
Outcome Expectations
5.85 (.86) 5.58 (.95) 6.750 .010**
** p < .01, *** p < .001
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Chapter Five: Discussion and Conclusion

This dissertation explored the role that tone (humor) and emotion (amusement)
play in parents’ attitudes, norms, self-efficacy, information-seeking behavior, and
intentions to talk to their child about sex. To do this, an experiment was conducted with
parents viewing either a humorous or non-humorous PSA, followed by a survey about
their reactions to the PSA and various beliefs and opinions about PCSC. Results indicate
that tone did not play an important role in PCSC intentions, but emotional reaction did.
More specifically, tone (humorous vs. non-humorous) did not predict intentions to talk to
one’s child about sex in the next week or year, nor did it predict parents’ attitudes, norms,
or self-efficacy. The extent to which participants reported being amused, however, did
predict intentions to talk to one child’s about sex in the next week and in the next year,
and predicted parents’ self-efficacy and norms regarding PCSC. This chapter discusses
these and other results and their theoretical and practical implications.
Discussion of Findings
Hypotheses. The first hypothesis of the study was that attitudes, norms, and self-
efficacy would predict parents’ intentions to talk to their child about sex. Results showed
that positive attitudes (but not negative attitudes), norm perceptions (approval for others,
but not approval from others) and self-efficacy did predict PCSC intentions in the next
week and year. This is consistent with the abundance of past TPB research in that all
three factors predicted behavioral intentions, which suggests the TPB is a helpful theory
in predicting PCSC intentions. These findings also contribute to the TPB literature in
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two ways. First, the findings demonstrate that not all types of attitudes and injunctive
norms contribute to intentions, at least with regard to PCSC. For example, negative
attitudes did not predict intentions, but positive attitudes did. Furthermore, the two types
of injunctive norms measured in the study had different effects on intentions. The extent
to which parents approve of other parents predicted PCSC intentions in the next week,
but the extent to which they perceived other parents’ approval of them did not. Both
types of injunctive norms, however, were predictive of PCSC intentions in the next year.
In other words, although both of these are injunctive norms, only one, approval of other
parents, was persuasive in short term intentions, but both were persuasive in long term
intentions. While the literature has established that injunctive norms have a different
persuasive influence than subjective norms, these findings suggest that there are also
different types of injunctive norms with different persuasive influences. This may
partially explain why past TPB research has found mixed results about the role of norms
in the model (Ajzen, 1991). This distinction between types of injunctive norms is
evidenced further by the gap between them. Parents perceived approval from other
parents regarding PCSC was quite high, but their approval of other parents on average
was three points lower on the 10-point scale, which could be the result of social
desirability. Future research should include measures for both types of injunctive norms
when using the TPB or other theories that incorporate injunctive norms, and continue to
test their persuasive influence in different contexts. These results also suggest that
measuring both kinds of injunctive norms offers more precision in predicting behaviors
than measuring one broad type of injunctive norm.
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The second way the findings from this hypothesis add to the TPB is by providing
future investigators with a baseline understanding of how the TPB predicts PCSC
intentions. Based on these results, campaign designers may need to direct their efforts at
increasing parents’ injunctive norms, especially their approval of other parents, and self-
efficacy, which were the strongest predictors of communicative intentions. This finding
also conflicts with some past TPB research, which has found that attitudes and self-
efficacy are the strongest predictors of intention (Godin & Kok, 1996). This does not
necessarily contradict the TPB itself, but calls attention to the fact that the effects of
attitudes, self-efficacy, and norms on intention vary for the behavior in question.
Researchers using the TPB to design PCSC interventions may need to focus more energy
on improving and increasing norms and self-efficacy than on attitudes.
The next hypotheses were that participants viewing the humorous PSA would like
it more, but find it less credible, and perceive PCSC as less important than participants
viewing the non-humorous PSA. Contrary to past research on humor (Bippus et al.,
2012; Eisend, 2011; Nabi et al., 2007; Strick et al., 2012; Wrench & Booth-Butterfield,
2003), participants reported liking the non-humorous PSA more than the humorous PSA
and there was no significant difference on perceived importance of the issue (PCSC)
between participants viewing either PSA. In keeping with past humor research (Eisend,
2009), credibility reports were lower in the humor condition. Amusement, on the other
hand, was associated with liking the PSA and finding it more credible. Like humor, there
was no relationship between amusement and perceived importance of PCSC. Combined,
the results from these six hypotheses suggest several things. First, humor is only
associated with liking if the participant is actually amused by the stimulus. This may
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help explain some of the mixed findings about whether humor leads to liking (see,
Eisend’s 2009 study), suggesting that humor only leads to liking when the person is
effectively amused. Perceived credibility was actually high when parents were amused
by the stimulus. Although most prior research has found humor to hinder credibility
perceptions, this finding may be consistent with the research by Skalski and colleagues
(2009), which found humor-induced presence to be associated with higher credibility
ratings. Again, the stimulus itself may not positively affect credibility perceptions, but
amusement may, in fact, increase credibility perceptions. In other words, ineffective
humor is actually more detrimental to liking and credibility than a lack of humor, but
effective humor is more effective overall.
Neither tone nor amusement affected perceived importance of PCSC. This is not
surprising because the association between humor and perceived importance or
seriousness has not been well established. Moyer-Gusé et al. (2011) had found that
humor decreased the perceived seriousness of an issue, but the present study’s failure to
find this connection suggests this connection may be tenuous. It may also be that this
studied was too narrow in measuring trivialization. Perceived importance of PCSC was
not changed, but perhaps other issues were trivialized in a positive way, (i.e. talking to
one’s child about sex is not as bad as previously thought). Perceived importance was
quite high (close to nine on the 10-point scale), so the lack of findings may also have
been the result of a ceiling effect. Further research is needed to understand if there is a
relationship between perceived importance of an issue and humor or amusement, or if
this finding is issue-dependent. Researchers using humor to convey health messages
must continue to study this phenomenon to understand under which conditions humor
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results in perceiving an issue as less serious. The findings from hypotheses two through
seven all suggest that the mixed blessings found in humor research may be partially
explained by the extent to which participants are actually amused. Being exposed to a
humorous stimulus may lead to different reactions based on the extent to which the
person is amused, rather than their recognition of or exposure to humor.
Research questions. The first major research question was whether a humorous
or non-humorous PSA would predict greater intentions to talk to one’s child about sex.
Results revealed that neither tone (humorous vs. non-humorous) predicted PCSC
intentions in the next week or year. Within the humor condition, however, amusement
did predict intentions to talk to one’s child about sex in the next week and year. Age of
the child, but not gender of the child, was also a significant predictor in both models.
These results add to evidence in past research that positive emotions may encourage
interpersonal communication (Frank et al., 2012; Grady & Glazer, 1994; Murphy et al.,
2011). Parents appear more likely to plan to talk to their children about sex after
experiencing amusement. Designing interventions that help generate positive emotional
responses for parents, particularly amusement, may increase interpersonal
communication with their children, even about difficult or awkward topics such as sexual
health. The results from this analysis also begin to illustrate an emerging pattern:
exposure to humor does not have an effect, but when one is actually amused by the
humor an effect emerges.
The second and third research questions confirm this pattern. A MANOVA
revealed that tone had no effect on parents’ attitudes, norms, or self-efficacy. However,
within the humor condition, high amusement was associated with higher perceived
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approval from other parents and higher self-efficacy. First, this suggests that amusement
may serve a normative function, which some research has also suggested (Ford &
Ferguson,2004; Khoury, 1985). Although more research is needed to confirm this
connection, it may be that because humor is often used to lighten tense or uncomfortable
topics, this has the added effect of making these topics seem more common or natural.
Also, while humor did not affect injunctive norms in this study, amusement did, at least
in terms of perceived approval from others. Moreover, these results confirm that
participants’ attitudes, norms and self-efficacy were not affected by watching a non-
humorous or humorous PSA, but if they watched the humorous PSA and were indeed
amused by it then there was a positive impact on their norm perceptions and self-efficacy.
This argument is confirmed further by the findings from the previous hypotheses, which
found that only when people were amused by the humorous PSA did they find it likeable
and credible. These analyses demonstrate that exposure to humor does not necessarily
prompt changes to attitudes, norms, and intentions, but instead the emotional response
from the humorous stimulus may do so. Up to this point, this notion has not been stated
explicitly in the research. Eisend (2011) hinted at this process by explaining that humor
prompts an emotional response, which transfers to the item being advertised. Skalski and
colleagues also insinuated such a process in their claim that humor creates a reaction,
which then affects credibility perceptions. Lynch (2002) also touches on this by arguing
that the study of humor needs to be seen as a process involving interpretation by the
individual. To summarize this explanation based on the specific results of this
dissertation: humor (tone) only influences attitudes, norms, and intentions when
amusement (positive emotional response) occurs. This is not to say that humor itself has
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no effect. The results of this dissertation suggest that humorous stimuli may actually be
less effective than non-humorous stimuli when the participant is not amused. It could be
that failed humor creates an extra cognitive burden and/or distracts the viewer from the
message. This is also consistent with DeSteno et al.'s (2004) finding that a message was
more persuasive when the emotional tone (anger framed and sadness framed) matched
the emotional state of the viewer. When the humor works for a person and they feel
amused, credibility and likability are enhanced, and the persuasive effect takes place.
These findings prove a key distinction in emotion research, in that humor and amusement
must not be conflated (see Galloway, 2009; Lynch, 2002; Moyer-Gusé et al., 2011; Nabi
et al., 2007; Soscia et al., 2012). Although humor itself was not highly effective in this
study, it should not be ignored for its potential, since amusement was found to have a
positive impact. The use of humor may be especially beneficial because in the current
digital age people are more likely to share funny videos with one another (Market Wired,
2011), thus potentially increasing exposure to a humorous campaign. However,
researchers must proceed with caution, as the findings from this study demonstrate that
failed humor may actually be less influential than lack of humor (see also Bell's 2009
study on the negative effects of failed humor). Interventionists wishing to use humor
must focus their efforts on creating humorous stimuli that will be found amusing by most
of the target audience, and/or should target humor-seekers in using these kinds of
interventions (see Hmielowski, Holbert, & Lee, 2011).
As with the first hypothesis, the findings from these research questions also have
implications for the TPB. Because prior studies have rarely incorporated humor or tone
into the TPB, it is not possible to say whether these findings are consistent with past
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literature, but it does suggest that emotion, more than tone, can influence the predictor
variables in the TPB. Models such as the Theory of Planned Behavior or Theory of
Reasoned Action (Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Fishbein, Howe, & Page, 1980)
have been referred to as rational models, but the findings from this dissertation suggest
that researchers using the TPB to predict or influence PCSC may need to incorporate an
emotional component into their model. The Integrative Model (Fishbein, 2000) does
consider emotion to be a background influence, equal in importance to exposure to an
intervention, but these results demonstrate that it is more precise to say that exposure
comes before the emotional response. Researchers using the TPB or Integrative Model
need to pay special attention to the directional influence of emotion on key predictor
variables and continue to develop frameworks incorporating emotional components.
While the research questions up to this point have demonstrated that tone and
emotion have differing effects on participants’ norms, attitudes, self-efficacy, and
intentions, research question four found that tone and emotion had the same effect on
information-seeking behaviors. The same number of people visited the informative
website in both conditions and spent about the same amount of time on the website.
Importantly, although there were not differences in information-seeking behavior
between conditions, information-seeking behavior was higher than expected. According
to a hierarchy model used by an organization that evaluates health interventions (Valente,
2002, p. 41), under low exposure, such as a brief PSA, about 5% of people will seek
more information, but in this study 10% sought more information. This suggests that
parents have a stronger desire for more PCSC information than one might predict.
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Parents may be open to and eager to receive information about navigating these
potentially difficult conversations with their children.
The findings about information-seeking intentions mirror the previous results in
that participants had lower intentions in the humor condition, unless they were highly
amused by the PSA, in which case they had higher intentions. This corroborates past
research finding emotion to be associated with information-seeking (Nabi, 2002),
specifically when emotions are positive (Murphy et al., 2011). Future research is needed
to have a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between emotion and
information-seeking. Little research has addressed this, but this study, along with the
others mentioned, add credence to the idea that discrete emotional responses may
encourage information-seeking behavior.
The fifth, sixth, and seventh research questions explored parents’ outcome
expectations about PCSC, and how these expectations affect PCSC intentions. First,
parents have moderate expectations about what will happen to their child if they talk to
them about sex, which is especially relevant because favorable outcome expectations are
associated with more PCSC (DiIorio et al., 2000). One crucial finding here is that while
past research has demonstrated that PCSC is associated with delayed intercourse,
outcomes associated with delayed intercourse (not wanting to have sex, waiting to have
sex, and being able to say no to sex) were the least expected by parents. This suggests
parents are largely unaware of the some of the potential outcomes talking to their children
about sex can have. Instead, parents were most likely to believe that talking to their child
about sex would make their child have more self-respect. This association has not been
tested in the literature, but is a promising area to explore. Fishbein and Capella (2006)
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argue that once a population’s expected outcomes are known they can serve as the basis
for future interventions. Because parents see this as a positive outcome it may be a
motivating factor in encouraging parents to talk to their children about sex. The
outcomes of having their children protect themselves against STDs and having a good
attitude about sex were the other top motivating factors, which may also be important
targets for future interventions. Another important finding is that expected outcomes
only moderately predicted PCSC intentions. It is not clear whether this is because
expectations were only moderate, and therefore not highly predictive, or if outcome
expectations simply are not highly motivating to parents. More research is needed to
understand the relationship between parents’ expected outcomes from PCSC and their
actual communicative behavior. It may also be important to educate parents about the
impact they do have when they talk to their children about sex, especially in those
outcomes that they may be unaware of (such as delaying intercourse or saying no to
intercourse).
In exploring these outcomes by gender of the child, only two were different for
sons and daughters. Parents were more likely to think that talking to daughters about sex
would make the daughters not want to have sex, than talking to sons about sex. They
were also more likely to believe that talking to their daughters about sex would result in
the daughter being able to say no to sex, than talking to their sons about sex. These
findings may be the result of common beliefs about male sexuality, such as the idea that
males are more sexually permissive and eager (Cohen & Shotland, 1996; Oliver & Hyde,
1993). Elliott (2012) found a common discourse among parents that teenage boys are
sexual aggressors, and that daughters must be “protected” from boys. This is also
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consistent with past research that parents discuss different topics with their sons and
daughters (Downie & Coates, 1999; O’Sullivan et al., 2001). While the different
perceptions of sons and daughters may not be surprising, what is surprising is the lack of
gender differences in this study. Only two of the eight outcome expectations varied by
gender of the child, and for the first hypothesis gender did not predict PCSC intentions in
the next week, nor was gender significant in the full model. Another recent study has
failed to find many differences between parents reports about their sons and daughters
(Pariera, under review). It is difficult to postulate why more gender differences were not
found here, because so much of the previous literature has found gender differences on a
variety of PCSC measures. The fact that participants in this study perceived PCSC as
being equally important to sons and daughters suggests that this group may be inclined to
treat sons and daughters equally, but more research is needed to understand whether
these results are particular to this study, or are a reflection of broader changes in the way
parents communicate with their sons and daughters.
During the course of analyzing this study, other questions emerged that warranted
further exploration. First, a full model was run of predictors of PCSC intentions,
including the TPB variables as well as past PCSC, outcome expectations, condition, and
child’s gender. In the full model, PCSC intentions in the next year were predicted by past
PCSC, positive attitudes, and approval for others. PCSC intentions in the next seven
days were predicted by past PCSC and both injunctive norms. This is similar to the
finding in Hypothesis One that both types of injunctive norms predicted PSCS intentions
in the next seven days, but only approval for others predicted PCSC intentions in the next
year. The findings from this regression further suggest that injunctive norms have
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differing persuasive functions, even when controlling for outcome expectations, child’s
gender, and condition. The fact that past PCSC was such a major predictor is no surprise
as past behavior is usually the biggest predictor of future behavior (see Fishbein, 2000).
This latter finding calls attention to the need to encourage PCSC at younger ages, when
parents are less likely to perceive their children as resistant to these conversations (see
future research section for a discussion of this). Communication with children about
sexuality earlier in the child’s life may make parents more likely to communicate when
the child is older, but this notion needs to be tested.
Because past PCSC played such a strong role in PCSC intention, the final post-
hoc analysis in this dissertation explored the differences between parents who had and
had not yet talked to their child about sex. Seven of the eight variables of interest varied
significantly between parents who had and had not talked to their child about sex.
Parents who had already talked to their child about sex had much lower information-
seeking intentions, and higher self-efficacy, negative and positive attitudes, approval for
others, perceived importance, and outcome expectations. These findings have significant
implications for several aspects of PCSC research. For one, parents are much less
interested in information if they report having already talked to their child about sex.
This could pose a challenge for reaching parents who have already initiated these
discussions and adds more evidence to the argument that parents of younger children
should be the target of future interventions. Also, self-efficacy was higher for parents
who had talked to their children about sex. This is consistent with past literature, in that
self-efficacy is based on past performance (Bandura, 1977). Negative and positive
attitudes were also higher for parents who had already talked to their children. This
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finding highlights that parents are often conflicted by this kind of communication and
perhaps their pre-existing attitudes are made salient once they have ventured into these
conversations. Parents who have talked to their children about sex perceive it as more
important than those who have not. The direction of this relationship is untested. The
most likely scenario is that parents who perceive PCSC as important are more likely to
have already initiated these conversations, but it may be that parental conversations with
their child about sex influences their beliefs about the importance of these conversations.
The fact that parents who have talked to their child about sex also have more positive
outcome expectations is a similar scenario. It seems more likely that higher outcome
expectations lead to more PCSC (as evidenced by the findings from research question
seven that outcome expectations predict PCSC), but experimental research is needed to
confirm this direction. It could be that parents talk to their children about sex and
observe some positive outcome on the part of the child. Regardless, parents who have and
have not talked to their children about sex have substantially different attitudes, norms,
self-efficacy, and information-seeking behaviors. Researchers may need to target these
two groups differently when developing interventions aimed at increasing PCSC.
Limitations
This study has many important findings, but there are some limitations to keep in
mind when interpreting the results. One of the primary limitations of this study is the
nature of the sample. For one, it was not random, in that participants self-selected to be
on panels with the survey company. Because the survey company is online, the sample is
also limited to adults with Internet access. Most importantly, the sample did not include
fathers, non-white participants, or parents of younger children. In creating these
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parameters it was possible to control for parent’s gender, ethnicity, and child’s age, but
these groups should be incorporated into future studies to test whether the findings differ
by these variables, and if so, to find ways to make campaigns like this effective for
different groups of people.
This study was also limited to the perspective of parents. Having dyadic
information from parents and their children is a crucial next step in parent-child sexual
communication research (Warren & Warren Kolind, 2015), partly because parents and
their children’s reports of the frequency of PCSC differ, as do their reports of the quality
of this communication (Fox & Inazu, 1980; Heisler, 2005; Newcomer & Udry, 1985;
Ogle et al., 2008; Pick & Palos, 1995b). Perspectives from the point of view of the child
or adolescent are often omitted in this line of research. Some researchers suggest that one
of the main reasons PCSC is limited is because of reluctance on the part of the child, not
the parent, and this underscores why dyadic analysis is an important next direction for
future research and interventions.
This study also focused only on quantity of sexual communication, but quality is
obviously another important area of research. While most studies linking PCSC to
positive outcomes have measured quantity and frequency, some scholars would argue
that researchers should focus more on the quality (Warren & Warren Kolind, 2015;
Wilson & Donenberg, 2004). Similarly, broader communicative styles may impact the
way parents talk to their children about sex (see Afifi et al., 2008; Askelson, Campo, &
Smith, 2011; Neer & Warren, 1988; Tanner et al., 2008), an area that this dissertation did
not explore.
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Another limitation is that this study looked only at incongruity humor, or humor
that uses discrepancies. Spotts, Weinberger, and Parsons (1997) argue that different
types of humor can have different functions. While incongruity-based humor is the most
common in advertising, and has been shown to be effective (Spotts et al., 1997), it is
unknown if the results of this study would be different if disparagement humor or
arousal-safety humor were used instead. More studies are needed comparing the effects
of incongruity-based humor, disparagement-based humor, etc. on a particular health
issue.
Finally, the design of the stimulus materials has some limitations. Ideally, the
humorous and non-humorous PSAs would have been identical in every regard with the
exception of the humorous messages. These PSAs had the additional difference of the
models not being the same in both conditions. It is possible that the use of different
models in the PSAs inadvertently affected the validity of the results. However, the
models were similar-looking in each shot and in developing the PSAs it was presumed
that using images with overtly “silly” facial expressions for the humor condition and
serious facial expressions for the non-humorous condition would help better distinguish
between these conditions. Despite the limitations outlined here, this study provides
insights into the function of humor and emotion on parents’ PCSC beliefs, intentions, and
expected outcomes.
Ideas For Future Research
Future emotion and humor research. The research on emotion in persuasion
has revealed profound insights into how our internal states affect our attitudes and
behaviors. Despite these findings, there are still gaps in the emotion literature, especially
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in the field of health communication. The previous review of literature points to one
obvious gap – the study of emotions other than basic emotions such as anger and fear.
The variety of distinct (though perhaps not universal) emotional states is undiscovered, as
are the action tendencies associated with them. For example, it could be that amusement
and happiness are distinct emotions with different action-orientations, or it could be that
amusement is a sub-emotion of happiness and therefore experienced similarly. This
knowledge could help provide a more nuanced understanding of reactions to emotional
appeals, and each distinct emotion could be matched to a different action-orientation.
Researchers could differentiate non-core emotions, such as amusement, by conducting
studies exposing participants to different stimuli and taking physiological measures such
as skin conductance, heart rate, and blood pressure. This could be supplemented with
extensively surveying the participants about the emotions they report feeling and the
actions they are inclined to take based on these emotions. This combined effort could
provide information about the observable, physiological differentiation of a wide variety
of emotions as well as the internal, experiential differentiation. This would provide rich
information about the physiological and cognitive experience of emotions like
amusement, and could have implications for cross-cultural interventions using humor, for
example, by revealing if different cultural groups experience amusement and whether
they experience it differently.
Taking Nabi’s argument that discrete emotions should be measured in order to
gain precision in emotion research, it may be useful to also study combined or hybrid
emotions. Emotions are not necessarily experienced one at a time, and hybrid emotions
may result in different attitudes and decisions. It is easy to imagine that one could
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experience combinations of emotions (happiness and surprise). There is a strong
argument that emotions experienced in rapid succession, or what Nabi calls “emotional
shift,” has implications for persuasive influence (Nabi & Green, in press). This research
would be particularly helpful in understanding the more complex emotional reactions and
their possible unintended consequences.
Another major gap in the literature exists in the flow of communication between
stimulus, reaction, and communication. Much of the research follows a path from stimuli
directly to audience, e.g. a fear appeal results in fear for the audience. The research in
this dissertation took this one step further by looking at how a stimuli prompts an
emotional reaction, which then prompts communicative intentions. Additional research
could continue to address the question of how an appeal encourages an interpersonal
interaction, which then leads to an outcome. For example, some evidence suggests that
humorous messages encourage interpersonal communication, which, in turn, increase
positive attitudes and self-efficacy (Frank et al., 2012), or that positive emotion
encourages interpersonal communication more than negative emotion does (Murphy et
al., 2011). More research is needed to understand under what conditions emotions lead to
increased interpersonal discussion, especially for more taboo subjects, which people may
not easily be inclined to talk about.
Yet another gap in the literature is the need for a better understanding of the long-
term effects of emotional appeals. Recall Nabi et al.'s (2007) finding that a humorous
message was attended to but dismissed as a joke, and then later had a “sleeper effect” in
which the persuasive impact increased over time. This information, combined with
evidence that some emotional appeals lead to increased interpersonal communication,
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suggests that understanding the long-term effects of these messages is an untapped
resource. This is not an inconsequential gap, because it suggests that effects may be
stronger than initially measured. Researchers could look at the delayed effects of
negative affective appeals in comparison to positive affective appeals in order to reveal
whether one is more likely to intensify over time and lead to more attitude and behavioral
change.
There is also a lack of research into how repeated emotional appeals function.
Most, but not all (see Frank et al., 2012), research looks at single exposure to a persuasive
appeal. It might be assumed that increased exposure leads to increased persuasion, but
this should be empirically tested, since it may be that for some emotions, increased
exposure could lead to desensitization, or could even change the type of emotional
response (for example, repeated amusement appeals may lead to weaker and weaker
amused responses, or may even lead to anger or annoyance). Understanding this is
essential since people are more likely to share humorous videos, as mentioned previously.
Research could address this gap simply by conducting event history analysis of repeated
exposure to a message. This could help health interventionists make decisions about the
optimal exposure of a campaign in order to maximize effect and minimize
desensitization.
There is also room for exploratory, qualitative work on emotional persuasion.
Most research begins with certain emotions and messages in mind, but it may be useful to
understand which emotional appeals have been the most memorable and the most
influential throughout a person’s life. Smith et al. (2009) conducted a study asking
people to describe their most memorable and influential messages about breast cancer.
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This research was designed in order to identify the sources of these messages, and similar
studies could also ask about the types of emotions experienced during the messages. For
example, researchers could ask participants to describe health messages that lead them to
change a particular behavior and could elicit responses about the emotional tone of those
messages, and the long-term emotions they experienced. This research would lead to a
deeper understanding of the kinds of emotional appeals that resonate with people, which
could then guide future health campaign designs.
Finally, there are large gaps in the literature on emotion in persuasion with
regards to cultural differences. There is no doubt that certain emotions are universal.
Regardless of culture, people experience anger, sadness and joy. However, the
antecedents of our emotions and how we respond to them are culturally bound. Research
has demonstrated that there are both universal and differentiated aspects of emotion
(Porter & Samovar, 1998). Understanding how culture plays a role in emotional
persuasion would allow health interventionists to design culturally appropriate messages,
therefore reaching underserved and underrepresented communities. This research would
also help our understanding of intercultural communication, for example, by finding
more effective ways that culturally incongruent health care providers and patients can
interact. Because there is so much cultural and linguistic diversity, there are many
avenues for this research and several ways these gaps in the literature could be addressed.
Qualitative research such as focus groups and key informant interviews could provide
rich information about how emotions are categorized, stigmatized, and even gendered.
Researchers could also include larger samples of people from different racial/ethnic
backgrounds, for comparative research and for in-depth analysis of particular cultures.
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Future PCSC research. There are also several important future directions for
research on parent-child sexual communication. One critical direction of PCSC research
is more inclusion of the child’s perspective. Adolescents are expected to be
uncomfortable and resistant to PCSC, and conversations are expected to be initiated by
parents (Elliott, 2012), but future interventions need to address whether adolescent-
initiated conversations could be promoted and whether there are different outcomes
between those initiated by parents and those initiated by the child. Similarly, more
dyadic studies are needed in this area of research. Understanding the similarities and
differences between how parents’ and children initiate and respond to these conversations
is critical for a more complete view of these conversations and their impact.
Another interesting direction would be to look at the use of humor within the
communicative context between parents and children. When parents are informal with
their children, their children are less anxious and avoidant, and children tend to use
humor when talking to their parents about sex (Afifi & Aldeis, 2008). Humor is known
to make light of tense and awkward situations, so looking at families who use humor in
PCSC may be a helpful starting point to understanding humor’s role in PCSC and
whether this could be encouraged between parents and their children.
Larger cultural issues, like views about adolescent sexuality, also need to be
incorporated into interventions. The way parents talk to their children, and their views of
sexuality, sexual orientation, sexual communication and sex roles are highly culturally
specific. There may be cross-cultural similarities, but it is unlikely that any intervention
would be highly effective across different cultures, and as a consequence cultural values
must be incorporated into PCSC interventions. Parent-child sexual communication is
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part of a bigger picture that includes school-based sex education and peer and media
influences, all contributing to the sexual development of young people. As adolescent
sexual health will remain a serious social concern into the foreseeable future, researchers
must continue to examine how we can help parents effectively engage in conversations
with their child about sex.
Conclusion
Though research on PCSC has consistently found positive associations to young
people’s sexual health, there has been a struggle to find cost-effective and sustainable
interventions to increase the quality and quantity of PCSC. This dissertation supports to
the idea that media interventions, such as PSAs, can be an effective way to reach parents
and promote PCSC without intensive parental training. This dissertation shows that
humor and amusement are distinct concepts with different persuasive influence, and that
researchers and practitioners must continue to treat them as such. This study found that
humor does not have a direct impact on parents’ beliefs and intentions about talking to
their child about sex, but amusement does. Humor is only effective at increasing norms,
attitudes, and PCSC intentions when participants are highly amused. Developing highly
amusing PSAs and targeting humor-seeking parents can be a very effective way to
increase parents’ attitudes, norms, and behaviors regarding PCSC. This study also found
that injunctive norms are not all the same. Approval of other people’s behaviors and
perceived approval from other people about one’s own behaviors have varying influence
on parents’ communicative intentions, and more attention needs to be focused on
unraveling these differences. Finally, this study found that parents have only moderate
expectations that talking to their children about sex will have an impact on their sexual
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behaviors, and may even be unaware of the positive impact they can have. Parents
believe that talking to their children about sex is an important part of being a parent, and
they want their children to have healthy sexual outcomes. Researchers, interventionists
and campaign designers must redouble their efforts in finding ways to help parents
navigate this difficult territory, and in doing so increase positive sexual health outcomes
for young people.

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Appendix A: Survey Instrument

Q1 Do you have a child who is 11-16 years old?
! Yes (1)
! No (2)
If No Is Selected, Then Skip To End of Survey

Q2 Are you the child's....?
! Mother (1)
! Father (2)
If Father Is Selected, Then Skip To End of Survey

Q3 Which of the following BEST describes your racial identity?
! Hispanic/Latino (1)
! Black/African-American (2)
! White/Caucasian (3)
! American Indian or Alaska Native (4)
! Asian (5)
! Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (6)
If White/Caucasian Is Not Selected, Then Skip To End of Survey
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You have qualified to be a participant in this study. Please read the information
sheet below and then continue to the survey.

Study About Communication and Health
University of Southern California Department of Communication
USC UPIRB # UP-13-00339
INFORMATION SHEET:
You are invited to participate in an online research study conducted by Katrina Pariera,
doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California because you are over the age
of 18. Your participation is voluntary. You should read the information below, and ask
questions about anything you do not understand before deciding whether to participate.
Please take as much time as you need to read the Information Sheet. You may also decide
to discuss participation with your family or friends.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how people feel about
communication and health.
STUDY PROCEDURES
This research study consists of one questionnaire. You will be asked about your attitudes
toward communication with your children about sexual health.
POTENTIAL RISKS AND DISCOMFORTS
Although this study is anonymous, risks include the personal nature of the questions
being asked. You will not have to answer any questions you are not comfortable with.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO PARTICIPANTS AND/OR TO SOCIETY Although
you may not receive any benefits from participating in this study, the information that
you and other participants provide may help our understanding of people’s attitudes about
parent-child communication.
PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION
By participating in this study you will be paid the agreed amount by Qualtrics.
CONFIDENTIALITY This study is anonymous. You will not be asked to provide any
identifying personal information such as your name or address. When the results of the
research are published or discussed at conferences, no information will be included that
would reveal your identity.
PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL
Your participation is voluntary. Your refusal to participate will involve no penalty or loss
of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled. You may withdraw your consent at any
time and discontinue participation without penalty. You are not waiving any legal claims,
rights or remedies because of your participation in this research study.
INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION
Katrina Pariera, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Communication University of
Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089 pariera@usc.edu
IRB CONTACT INFORMATION University Park IRB, Office of the Vice Provost for
Research Advancement, Stonier Hall, Room 224a, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1146, (213)
821-5272 or upirb@usc.edu
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Q1.2 How old are you?
[Scroll down menu]
If Under 18 Is Selected, Then Skip To End of Survey

Q1.5 Which political party do you identify with?
! Republican (1)
! Democrat (2)
! Other (3) ____________________

Q1.6 What is the highest grade or level of school you have finished?
! Some high school (1)
! High school diploma or GED (2)
! Some college (3)
! Associates Degree (4)
! Bachelors Degree (5)
! Masters Degree / J.D. (6)
! Ph.D./ M.D. (7)
! Prefer not to say (8)

Q5 First we will ask you to view the following public service announcement (PSA). This
is a 35 second video clip with sound. After you have viewed this clip please continue
with the survey.

Q6 Timing
First Click (1)
Last Click (2)

Q9 We're going to start with your reactions to the PSA you just viewed.

Q10 Which of the following were mentioned in the PSA you just viewed?
! Condoms (1)
! Diabetes (2)
! Drunk-driving (3)

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Q11 How many times did you watch the PSA?
! 1 (1)
! 2 (2)
! 3 (3)
! 4 (4)
! 5 or more (5)

Q12 Could you hear the PSA?
! Yes (1)
! No (2)

Q13 How funny do you think the PSA was? (On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means not
at all and 10 means extremely)
! 1 Not at all funny (1)
! 2 (2)
! 3 (3)
! 4 (4)
! 5 (5)
! 6 (6)
! 7 (7)
! 8 (8)
! 9 (9)
! 10 Extremely funny (10)

Q14 On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means not at all and 10 means extremely, to what
extent did the PSA make you feel…
1 Not
At All
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Extremely
Confused ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Surprised ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Angry ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Amused ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Afraid ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Disgusted ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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Q15 On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means not at all and 10 means extremely, to what
extent did you…
1 Not At
All
2 3 4 5 5 7 8 9 10
Extremely
...like the
PSA?
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...find the
PSA
interesting?
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...pay
attention to
the PSA?
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Q16 How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
1
Strongly
Disagree
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Strongly
Agree
I think the
general
message of
this PSA is
believable.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
I think the
people that
made this
PSA are
telling the
truth.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Q17 Now we're going to ask you some questions about you and your family.

Q18 Although you might have more than one child, we want to ask you about just one of
your children. Think about your OLDEST child in the 11 to 16 age range. How old is this
child?
! 11 (1)
! 12 (2)
! 13 (3)
! 14 (4)
! 15 (5)
! 16 (6)

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Q19 The rest of these questions will be about your oldest child in the 11 to 16 age range.
What is this child's first name? [TEXT ENTRY – PIPED INTO QUESTIONS BELOW]

Q20 What is [child’s name]'s gender?
! Boy (0)
! Girl (1)

Q21 How important is it for you to talk to [child’s name] about sex (on a scale from 1 to
10 where 1 means not at all important and 10 means extremely important)?
! 1 Not At All Important (1)
! 2 (2)
! 3 (3)
! 4 (4)
! 5 (5)
! 6 (6)
! 7 (7)
! 8 (8)
! 9 (9)
! 10 Extremely Important (10)

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Q22 What impact, if any, do you think talking to [child’s name] about sex will have on
him/her, (on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means no impact at all and 10 means a very
strong impact)?
! 1 No Impact At All (1)
! 2 (2)
! 3 (3)
! 4 (4)
! 5 (5)
! 6 (6)
! 7 (7)
! 8 (8)
! 9 (9)
! 10 Very Strong Impact (10)

Q23 Thinking about [child’s name], how much do you agree or disagree with the
following statements (on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means strongly disagree and 10
means strongly agree)?
1
Strongly
Disagree
2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Strongly
Agree
I would like
advice on how
to talk to my
child about sex.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
I have a lot to
learn about how
to talk to my
child about sex.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
I would be
interested in
learning more
about how to
talk to my child
about sex.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Q24 Have you talked with [child’s name] about sex?
! Yes (1)
! No, but I plan to. (2)
! No, and I do not plan to. (3)

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[Answer If “Have you talked with [child’s name] about sex?” Yes Is Selected]
Q25 On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means not at all and 10 means extremely, how
much do you agree with the following statements? Talking with [child’s name] about
sex...
1
Not
At
All
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Extremely
...is
embarrassing.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...is a
humorous
experience.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...brings us
closer.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...is part of
being a parent.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...is a positive
experience.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...makes me
nervous.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...is something
I look forward
to.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...is
uncomfortable.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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[Answer If “Have you talked with [child’s name] about sex?” No, but I plan to. Is
Selected Or “Have you talked with [child’s name] about sex?” No, and I do not plan to. Is
Selected]
Q26 On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means not at all and 10 means extremely, how
much do you agree with the following statements? Talking with [child’s name] about
sex...
1
Not
At
All
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Extremely
...would be
embarrassing.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...would be a
humorous
experience.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...would bring
us closer.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...is part of
being a parent.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...would be a
positive
experience.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...would make
me nervous.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...is something
I look forward
to.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
...would be
uncomfortable.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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Q27 How much do you think OTHER PARENTS would APPROVE of YOU talking to
[child’s name] about each of the following? (On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means
would not approve and 10 means extreme approval).
1
Not
at all
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Extremely
Using birth
control
(including
condoms)
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
STDs ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Dating and
Relationships
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Waiting to
have sex
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Positive
aspects of
sex
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Pregnancy
prevention
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Abstinence ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Sexual
anatomy
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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Q28 How much do you think OTHER PARENTS SHOULD talk to THEIR sons about
the following?
Neve
r (1)
Very
rarely
(2)
Rarely
(3)
Occasion-
ally (4)
Frequently
(5)
Very
frequently
(6)
Using birth control
(including condoms)
! ! ! ! ! !
STDs ! ! ! ! ! !
Dating and
Relationships
! ! ! ! ! !
Waiting to have sex ! ! ! ! ! !
Positive aspects of
sex
! ! ! ! ! !
Pregnancy
prevention
! ! ! ! ! !
Abstinence ! ! ! ! ! !
Sexual Anatomy ! ! ! ! ! !

Q29 How much do you think OTHER PARENTS SHOULD talk to THEIR daughters
about the following?
Neve
r (1)
Very
rarely
(2)
Rarely
(3)
Occasion-
ally (4)
Frequently
(5)
Very
frequently
(6)
Using birth control
(including condoms)
! ! ! ! ! !
STDs ! ! ! ! ! !
Dating and
Relationships
! ! ! ! ! !
Waiting to have sex ! ! ! ! ! !
Positive aspects of
sex
! ! ! ! ! !
Pregnancy
prevention
! ! ! ! ! !
Abstinence ! ! ! ! ! !
Sexual Anatomy ! ! ! ! ! !

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Q30 Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each of the following
statements. If I talk to [child’s name] about sex, he/she will...
Strongly
Disagree
(1)
Disagree
(2)
Slightly
Disagree
(3)
Neither
Disagree
Nor
Agree
(4)
Slightly
Agree
(5)
Agree
(6)
Strongly
Agree
(7)
...wait to
have sex
until they're
married.
! ! ! ! ! ! !
...have
healthy
romantic
relationships.
! ! ! ! ! ! !
...not want to
have sex.
! ! ! ! ! ! !
...not get
pregnant or
get someone
pregnant.
! ! ! ! ! ! !
...be able to
say no to
sex.
! ! ! ! ! ! !
...protect
themselves
against
STDs.
! ! ! ! ! ! !
...have a
good attitude
about sex.
! ! ! ! ! ! !
...have more
respect for
themselves.
! ! ! ! ! ! !

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Q31 In the previous 12 months, how often have you talked to [child’s name] about the
following issues?
1
Never
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
All
The
Time
Using birth
control
(including
condoms)
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
STDs ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Dating and
relationships
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Waiting to
have sex
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Positive
aspects of
sex
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Pregnancy
prevention
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Abstinence ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Sexual
anatomy
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Q32 How likely is it that you will talk to [child’s name] about sex in the next 7 days?
! 1 Not at all likely (1)
! 2 (2)
! 3 (3)
! 4 (4)
! 5 (5)
! 6 (6)
! 7 (7)
! 8 (8)
! 9 (9)
! 10 Extremely likely (10)

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Q33 Over the next 12 months, how often do you plan to talk to [child’s name] about each
of the following issues?
Never (1) Rarely
(2)
Very
Rarely
(3)
Occasionally
(4)
Often (5) Very
Often (6)
Using birth
control
(including
condoms)
! ! ! ! ! !
STDs ! ! ! ! ! !
Dating and
relationships
! ! ! ! ! !
Waiting to
have sex
! ! ! ! ! !
Positive
aspects of
sex
! ! ! ! ! !
Pregnancy
prevention
! ! ! ! ! !
Abstinence ! ! ! ! ! !
Sexual
anatomy
! ! ! ! ! !

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Q35 Thinking about [child’s name], how much do you agree or disagree with the
following statements?
Strongly
Disagre
e (1)
Disagree
(2)
Neither
Disagree
nor
Agree (3)
Agree
(4)
Strongly
Agree
(5)
Prefer
not to
answer
(6)
I can talk to my child
about any sexual issue.
! ! ! ! ! !
I can answer any sex-
related question my
child asks me.
! ! ! ! ! !
I know how to handle
difficult conversations
with my child about
sexuality.
! ! ! ! ! !
If I want to have a talk
with my child about
sex, it's easy for me to
do so.
! ! ! ! ! !
I can remain calm if
my child seems
anxious or nervous
about talking about
sex.
! ! ! ! ! !
I am comfortable
talking to my child
about sex.
! ! ! ! ! !

Q36 [IF HUMOR CONDITION] Thank you very much for participating in this survey.
Your responses will help us find ways to encourage positive parent-child communication.
If you would like more information, below is a link to a website with tips and advice for
talking to your child(ren) about sex. http://talktoyourchild.weebly.com/

Q37 [IF NON-HUMOR CONDITION] Thank you very much for participating in this
survey. Your responses will help us find ways to encourage positive parent-child
communication. If you would like more information, below is a link to a website with
tips and advice for talking to your child(ren) about sex.
http://talktoyourchildren.weebly.com/

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Asset Metadata

Creator Pariera, Katrina Louise (author)

Core Title The influence of a humorous intervention on parent-child sexual communication

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Communication

Publication Date 08/12/2014

Defense Date 04/23/2014

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag amusement,emotion,health communication,humor,OAI-PMH Harvest,parent‐child sexual communication,PSA,theory of planned behavior,tone

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Murphy, Sheila T. (committee chair), Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes (committee member), Cody, Michael J. (committee member)

Creator Email katrinalp@gmail.com,pariera@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-460206

Unique identifier UC11287032

Identifier etd-ParieraKat-2811.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-460206 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-ParieraKat-2811.pdf

Dmrecord 460206

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Pariera, Katrina Louise

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA