Parental intention to engage in healthier beverage practices: effects of gain‐ versus loss‐framed messages

Abstract

Energy imbalance from excessive sugar‐sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption may lead to adverse health consequences in childhood and later in adulthood. The purpose of this study was to test effects of message framing (gain‐ or loss‐framed) on behavioral intention of parents to role model healthful beverage intake and to make healthful beverages available in the home for a child (6–12 years). Two messages embedded in still images were tested for each behavior, one gain‐framed and one loss‐framed, in a between subjects, posttest only study. A survey was administered to 380 parents at the Minnesota State Fair 2015 to assess usual beverage intake, home beverage availability, and to test the effects of message framing on behavioral intention (scale of 1 to 4 where 1 = not at all and 4 = a lot). The majority of parents were white (90.7%), women (79.7%), employed full time (72.9%), and had a 4 year degree college (70.5%); mean age was 42.0 years. A manipulation check with 75 parents showed that a majority perceived the messages to be framed according to the intended valence. Higher home availability of less healthy beverages and frequency of soda intake was correlated with lower parental intention to make healthy beverages available or to role model intake of healthy beverages, regardless of message valence. A higher number of parents indicated that the gain‐framed versus the loss‐framed messages would motivate them (some and a lot) to make healthful beverages available at home (73.2% vs. 65.8%) and to role model healthful beverage intake for their children (76.1% vs. 64.0%). The gain‐framed message (M=3.06, SD= 0.90) produced significantly (p<.002) greater intention to make healthful beverages available in the home than the loss‐framed message (M=2.93, SD= 0.96). The gain‐framed message (M=3.10, SD= 0.85) also produced significantly greater intention (p<.0001) to role model healthful beverage intake for their children than the loss‐framed message (M=2.81, SD= 1.03). Based on these results, a parent intervention program using gain‐framed messages will be developed and implemented to decrease intake of SSBs by children. Decreased intake of SSBs may positively affect weight status as well as nutrient quality of the diet.Support or Funding InformationMinnesota Agricultural Experiment Station