Anti‐drug public service announcements targeting parents: An analysis and evaluation

This study examined televised anti‐drug public service announcements (PSAs) that direct parents to prevent their children from using drugs. A content analysis of 17 PSAs, televised from 1989 to 1998, was conducted to determine (a) the prevention strategies most frequently recommended to parents, (b) the presentation of these messages, and (c) whether PSA content reflected persuasion theories typically used in the design of health‐related messages. Most PSAs encouraged parents to communicate directly with their children about the consequences of using drugs, not to over‐look everyday opportunities to communicate with their children about drug‐related consequences, were affectively neutral, and featured information conveyed by an off‐camera narrator. About half the messages reflected theories commonly used to create health messages. Future anti‐drug PSAs directed at parents should employ theory to model parent‐child communication behaviors, emphasize the importance of monitoring children's activities, and e...