Research
My Research Program
My research program focuses on how media, including digital media technologies, can have a positive impact on health. I take an interdisciplinary approach to health communication, drawing from the communication, psychology, health behavior and public health disciplines. I am especially interested in conducting research that has a positive impact on participants and the community. Below I describe two areas of my research. In addition to the research below, I am a co-director of the Media, Adolescents and Cannabis (MAC) lab.
Potential for communication strategies to improve adolescent and young adult health
Much of my research focuses on the development and evaluation of communication strategies for health promotion with adolescents and young adults. The main goal of this research is to examine how we can best use communication to influence health-related attitudes and behaviors to promote positive health among young people. One focus within this line of research is on mobile health, or mHealth, which is the use of mobile phones for health promotion. I was selected for the mHealth training institute program at the University of California Los Angeles in 2017 as a mobile health scholar. My work in this area has also resulted in awards, including the Science Matters award, for research related to pregnancy prevention, presented by SHIFT NC (Sexual Health Initiatives For Teens, formerly the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign).
Recent publications related to this work:
Willoughby, J. F., Hust, S. J. T., Couto, L., Kang, S., Pingel, B., Li, J., Austin, B. W., Brooks, O., Burduli, E., & Barbosa-Leiker, C. (in press). Examining science and media literacy health communication messages to reduce intentions to use cannabis while pregnant. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
Willoughby, J. F., King, R., & Adams, P. M. (2022). Development of an mHealth text message intervention to promote adherence to COVID-19 isolation recommendations for college students. Journal of American College Health, Online first ahead of print.
Willoughby, J. F. & Brickman, J. (2021). Adding to the message testing tool belt: Assessing the feasibility and acceptability of an EMA-style, mobile approach for mHealth interventions. Health Communication, 10, 1260-1267.
Willoughby, J. F., Niu, Z., & Liu, S. (2018). Assessing the potential use of narrative and the entertainment education strategy in an mHealth text message intervention. Journal of Health Communication, 23, 20-27.
Willoughby, J. F. & Liu, S. (2018). Do pictures help tell the story? An experimental test of narrative and emojis in a health text message intervention. Computers in Human Behavior, 79, 75-82.
Understanding the impact of media on health behaviors as a precursor to intervention
My research also focuses on how media may impact attitudes and behaviors related to health in an effort to better understand when and how health communicators can intervene. Much of this research is designed to inform my work on message development and evaluation and to provide guidance on when intervention is needed. I often use this work to look at risk-related behaviors among young people and at the impact of digital communication on health outcomes.
Recent publications related to this work:
Willoughby, J. F., Hust, S. J. T., Couto, L., Li, J., Kang, S., Nickerson, C. G., Price, R., & Tlachi-Munoz, S. (2023). The impact of sexual scripts in brand-generated cannabis social media posts on sex-related cannabis expectancies: Does body appreciation moderate effects? Drug and Alcohol Review.
Willoughby, J. F., Hust, S. J. T., Li, J., & Couto, L. (2022). Social media, marijuana and sex: An exploratory study of adolescents’ intentions to use and young adults’ use of marijuana. The Journal of Sex Research, 1, 85-97.
Willoughby, J. F., Hust, S. J. T., Li, J., Couto, L., Kang, S., & Domgaard, S. (2020). An exploratory study of adolescents’ social media sharing of marijuana-related content. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 23, 642-646.
Willoughby, J. F. & Myrick, J. G. (2019). Entertainment, social media use, and young women’s tanning behaviors. Health Education Journal, 78, 352-365.
For PDFs of my research, please feel free to email me at Jessica.willoughby@wsu.edu to request a copy. You can also see more of my publications on my research profiles: