A Serial Mediation Model of Message Framing on Intentions to Receive the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine: Revisiting the Role of Threat and Efficacy Perceptions

Previous research has yielded mixed findings regarding the potential for message framing to influence HPV vaccine-related intentions. Drawing on the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), the current study focuses on the role of threat and efficacy as serial mediators linking message framing and HPV vaccine-related intentions. College-age females and their parents participated in a between-subjects, posttest only experiment to investigate whether behavioral intentions to talk to a doctor about the HPV vaccine differ as a function of framing messages in terms of disease prevention. For young women, framing messages as preventing genital warts (as compared to cancer prevention) significantly increased perceptions of self-efficacy, which enhanced response efficacy perceptions that, in turn, increased intentions to talk to a doctor about the HPV vaccine. There were no effects of message framing among parents. However, response efficacy was a significant mediator of self-efficacy and behavioral intentions for both the college-age females and their parents. The results of this study suggest new approaches for considering the relationship among EPPM constructs.