ERIC Number: EJ918808
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Apr
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0268-1153
EISSN: N/A
Media Health Literacy (MHL): Development and Measurement of the Concept among Adolescents
Levin-Zamir, Diane; Lemish, Dafna; Gofin, Rosa
Health Education Research, v26 n2 p323-335 Apr 2011
Increasing media use among adolescents and its significant influence on health behavior warrants in-depth understanding of their response to media content. This study developed the concept and tested a model of Media Health Literacy (MHL), examined its association with personal/socio-demographic determinants and reported sources of health information, while analyzing its role in promoting empowerment and health behavior (cigarette/water-pipe smoking, nutritional/dieting habits, physical/sedentary activity, safety/injury behaviors and sexual behavior). The school-based study included a representative sample of 1316 Israeli adolescents, grades 7, 9 and 11, using qualitative and quantitative instruments to develop the new measure. The results showed that the MHL measure is highly scalable (0.80) includes four sequenced categories: identification/recognition, critical evaluation of health content in media, perceived influence on adolescents and intended action/reaction. Multivariate analysis showed that MHL was significantly higher among girls ([beta] = 1.25, P less than 0.001), adolescents whose mothers had higher education ([beta] = 0.16, P = 0.04), who report more adult/interpersonal sources of health information ([beta] = 0.23, P less than 0.01) and was positively associated with health empowerment ([beta] = 0.36, P less than 0.0005) and health behavior ([beta] = 0.03, P = 0.05). The findings suggest that as a determinant of adolescent health behavior, MHL identifies groups at risk and may provide a basis for health promotion among youth.
Descriptors: Health Promotion, Health Behavior, Criticism, Adolescents, Multivariate Analysis, Grade 7, Mass Media, Empowerment, Grade 9, Grade 11, Foreign Countries, Females, Mothers, Parent Background
Oxford University Press. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: +44-1865-353907; Fax: +44-1865-353485; e-mail: jnls.cust.serv@oxfordjournals.org; Web site: http://her.oxfordjournals.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Grade 11; Grade 7; Grade 9
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Israel
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A