Examining the Effect of Message Strategies on Peruvian Mothers´ Intentions to Increase Fruit Intake Among Children

BackgroundThe Peruvian population does not meet the recommended guidelines for daily consumption of fruits and vegetables and, thus, social marketing approaches are needed in order to improve this behavior.Focus of the ArticleThe focus of this study was on changing intentions to engage in a recommended health behavior by experimentally testing one component of a social marketing strategy, namely the effect of messages to motivate mothers to increase the fruit consumption of their children.Research QuestionWhat type of messages, either those communicating the advantages of engaging in the recommended behavior or those communicating the norms about the behavior, are better at increasing mothers’ intentions to give 3 daily fruits to their children?Importance to the Social Marketing FieldThis study identifies methodological steps that can guide future social marketing approaches to test the effect of messages in the area of behavior change.MethodsA total of 285 mothers completed an online survey with an experiment built in. Mothers were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a gain-framed messages condition, a normative messages condition and a no message condition (control condition) and then answered questions about the dependent variables.ResultsResults showed that exposure to messages communicating information about the advantages of engaging in the behavior increased mothers’ attitudes and intentions to give 3 daily fruits to their children; however, messages communicating information about descriptive norms did not increase mothers’ perceived norms or intentions.Recommendations for Research or PracticeSocial marketing approaches that address low levels of fruit consumption among children can benefit from message strategies that target mothers and that focus on communicating the advantages of giving more fruits to their children.