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Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on May 15, 2006
Health Education Research 2006 21(5):601-610; doi:10.1093/her/cyl014
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Does socio-economic status and health consciousness influence how women respond to health related messages in media?

Anette Christine Iversen1,* and Pål Kraft2

1 Department of Education and Health Promotion, Research Centre for Health Promotion, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Christiesgate 13, 5015 Bergen, Norway
2 Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, NO-0317 Oslo, Norway

*Correspondence to: A. C. Iversen. E-mail: anette.iversen{at}psyhp.uib.no

During the past few decades, people have been increasingly exposed to health-related messages in the mass media, conveying recommendations for healthy lifestyles. The present study investigates whether these messages represent a stressor, and whether coping responses increase levels of motivation or levels of negative affect. A sample of 403 women aged 45 years were surveyed twice, at an interval of 4 weeks. A substantial proportion of the participants perceived the health messages to be stressful (increased levels of threat). Overall, the participants reported a greater use of adaptive than non-adaptive coping when exposed to the health messages. Socio-economic status (defined in educational terms) was negatively correlated with non-adaptive coping, while health consciousness was positively correlated with adaptive coping. Adaptive coping was positively related, and non-adaptive coping was negatively related, to intentions and behaviours. Non-adaptive coping was associated with stronger negative emotions. The results indicate that less-educated women tend to respond more non-adaptively to health messages than more-educated women; for the former group, this has negative consequences in terms of increased levels of negative emotions and decreased levels of motivation to engage in healthy behaviours.


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