HEALTH BEHAVIOR CHANGES THROUGH TELEVISION - THE ROLES OF DE-FACTO AND MOTIVATED SELECTION PROCESSES

We assess the role played by two types of self-selection in accounting for the influence of a television series on smoking cessation. De fac to selection is based on respondents' regular channel viewing habits t hat can expose them to the series. Motivated self-selection takes plac e when viewers deliberately select to watch television programming bec ause it meets their desire to quit smoking. Self-selection also can be viewed as a methodological artifact, spuriously accounting for the as sociation between the airing of the series and smoking cessation among the target audience. Subjects were a probability sample of Chicago sm okers who regularly watch the evening news on one of the network chann els. The intervention was a televised self-help smoking cessation prog ram broadcast on one of the network channels over 20 days. Using neste d covariance structure models for the analysis, we conclude that 1) de facto selection had no influence on exposure to the program; 2) motiv ated selection had no influence on exposure to the program; 3) the pro gram reduced smoking; and 4) this effect cannot be attributed solely t o the methodological artifact of self-selection, although motivation t o quit smoking did have the strongest influence on attempts to quit.