Exploring Message Framing's Impact on Parent-Child Communication about Sport-Related Concussions in Youth Sports

Abstract

Recognizing the pivotal role parents play in shaping their children’s attitudes and behaviors regarding sport-related concussions (SRCs), this study investigates message framing on parents’ intentions to discuss SRCs with their children. More specifically, parents were encouraged to talk to their children about the importance of recognizing SRCs and well as reporting them to their coach. In doing so, one message emphasized the benefits of youth athletes recognizing and reporting SRCs and the other highlighted the barriers. Among 249 parents with a child between the ages of 9 and 15, parents perceived benefits to SRC communication positively predicted communication intentions, while SRC knowledge and barriers had no effect. Knowledge interacted with both barriers and benefits to predict parent communication intentions. The study underscores the importance of carefully crafted messaging promoting parent-child SRC communication, highlighting the need for interventions emphasizing parents to initiate conversations about SRC with their child by highlighting the benefits of child reporting and recognizing SRCs. The results are discussed with an emphasis on the practical implications of these findings with a focus on promotional efforts aimed at parents and youth coaches.