Health and Risk Communication

A study coordinated by researchers at APPC demonstrates the effectiveness of community-based screening to combat the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in high-risk adolescents. The study found that African-American youth ages 14 to 17 who were identified as positive for at least one of three STIs subsequently reduced their number of sexual partners and

APPC scholars Amy Bleakley, Ph.D., Michael Hennessy, Ph.D., and Martin Fishbein, Ph.D., published a paper, “Predicting Preferences for Types of Sex Education in US Schools” (Sexuality Research and Social Policy), identifying characteristics related to sex education policy preferences in the United States. The authors used data from the Annenberg National Health Communication Survey.   Article

In a newly released study conducted by APPC and published in Prevention Science online, researchers analyze data from the National Annenberg Survey of Youth showing that adolescents ages 14 to 22 do exert control over their risk-seeking tendencies. Although such tendencies tend to peak during adolescence, youth who can delay gratification are also able to

The grant is part of a $25.5 million award to the city of Philadelphia for anti-obesity and anti-tobacco programs from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Amy Jordan, Ph.D., Amy Bleakley, Ph.D., and Michael Hennessy, Ph.D., representing APPC’s Media and the Developing Child and Health Communication areas, will team up to help the

Sally Dunlop, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral fellow in APPC’s Annenberg Center for Advanced Study in Communication, and Dan Romer, Ph.D., associate director of APPC and director of its Adolescent Communication Institute, published a health brief, “Adolescent and young adult crash risk: Sensation seeking, substance use propensity and substance use behaviors,” in the Journal of Adolescent Health (vol. 46, 2010).

Michael Hennessy, research analysis manager at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, was lead author of a paper, “Differentiating between precursor and control variables when analyzing reasoned action theoriesm,” co-written with APPC’s Amy Bleakley, Martin Fishbein, and Dan Romer, and colleagues Larry Brown (Brown University), Ralph DiClemente and Laura Salazar (Emory University), Robert Valois (University of