The Lab’s work is organized around three connected areas. Across all projects, we focus on how communication operates in everyday digital contexts and how it can be used to improve health.
Digital Media & Health Effects
We study how exposure to health-related content in digital environments shapes attitudes, emotions, and well-being. Much of this work focuses on adolescents and young adults and examines how people interpret and respond to what they encounter on social media.
Current projects include:
- Fitness content and body image: An ecological momentary assessment study that examines how exposure to different types of fitness content (e.g., objectifying v. body positive portrayals) influences body appreciation and social comparison among young adults. The project is funded by a grant from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Mass Communication and Society Division.
- Social media engagement and identity: Survey work exploring how late adolescents (18 to 20 year-olds) use social media to engage around health topics and connections to civic engagement. A chapter published from this work titled Adolescents’ Use of Social Media for Sexual and Reproductive Health can be found in the book Teens, Sex, and Media Effects: Understanding Media’s Influence on Adolescent Sexuality, Sexual Health, and Advocacy.
Digital Health Interventions & Message Design
This area focuses on designing and testing communication strategies that promote health and reduce risk. We develop interventions that are theory-driven, tailored to specific audiences, and delivered through accessible digital platforms.
Current projects include:
- Text message interventions for health behavior: Development and testing of SMS-based interventions across multiple health topics, with a focus on engagement and effectiveness. An example of a text message intervention we developed in partnership with Washington State University Cougar Health Services is described in the article Development of an mHealth text message intervention to promote adherence to COVID-19 isolation recommendations for college students in Journal of American College Health.
- Asynchronous cannabis misuse prevention intervention: As co-director of the Media, Adolescents, and Cannabis lab with Dr. Stacey Hust, Dr. Willoughby and their team are designing and assessing the acceptability of an asynchronous harm reduction intervention designed for college students. This project is funded by the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse.
- Firearm storage communication for parents: A message development and effectiveness assessment of developmentally tailored messages designed to encourage safe storage practices and reduce firearm-related injury risk among adolescents. This project is funded by Grandmothers Against Gun Violence.
Health Communication Science & Methods
We work to strengthen health communication research by developing and refining methods and measurement approaches that capture communication experiences as they occur in everyday life.
Current projects include:
- Advancing Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methods: We are using mixed methods to examine how EMA can be used to capture real-time exposure, perceptions, and outcomes. This project will use EMA data collection, response time assessments, and cognitive interviews to further our understanding of EMA in digital health effects work. This project is funded by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Mass Communication and Society Division.
- Advancing perceptions measurement: We are conducting a series of studies to further our understanding of how we can measure perceptions of social media fitness content through EMA methods.